Ministers should be accountable and transparent about who they're meeting with and why - but how often are they really?

Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to debate on the incredible lack of public transparency and accountability over Ministers' obligations to report who they meet with in their capacity as a Minister, and what they discuss.

Abigail said:

On behalf of The Greens, I also support this motion. The issue of ministerial disclosures is not limited to the Premier. During the last budget estimates hearings session I went through the disclosures of every Minister since they came into government. I heard what the Leader of the Government said in her contribution. To be fair, Minister Sharpe does have far better and more detailed disclosures than most of her colleagues. But as much as I may personally like Minister Houssos, for example, her disclosure is pages and pages where the purpose of meetings is listed as "Portfolio matter". That is not uncommon among Ministers. It is rare for any actual meaningful disclosure to be put in those disclosure summaries.

Sure, there might be meeting and greeting the first time. But when the purpose of the meeting is listed as "meet and greet" for somebody the Minister has met four or five times since coming to government, that is surely not okay. I share the criticisms that the Hon. Mark Latham just raised. It is quite telling that the Government's response to the motion is to say, "When the Coalition were in government, they were the same, if not worse." That is not a defence. The Government could have stood up to say, "You're right. We haven't done a very good job here. We could do better. Let's commit to reviewing that and making some actual changes." The Premier's memorandum on it is not very good. It is a bit rubbish. The Hon. Mark Latham is stealing all my talking points.

The Hon. Penny Sharpe: That doesn't happen very often!

Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: It does not happen very often, but on matters of accountability we often agree. ICAC has been banging on about the matter for a long time. Operation Eclipse is an example from June 2021, in which ICAC made the following finding:

The published summaries of ministerial diary disclosures are not sufficiently detailed or meaningful for the public to understand who is meeting whom and why.

Why should Ministers make disclosures? They should make disclosures so that the public can understand who is meeting whom and why. That standard is not being met. The Government would have argued that the Coalition should have done that when it was in government. It needs to apply that same standard to itself now. The Greens are disappointed with the Government and support the motion. I wish that the Government would say, "It is not good enough. We will commit to do better. If we do not want more Ministers being called back to budget estimates hearings, we will look at the proactive disclosures they make." I spent a good amount of my time during those hearings trying to get to the bottom of exactly who was meeting whom. That is a waste of my time that could be avoided if the Government were to simply disclose it in the first place.

Read the full debate in Hansard here.

23 October 2024

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Ministers should be accountable and transparent about who they're meeting with and why - but how often are they really?

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