Revelations today of a secret manual distributed by the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to departments instructing them how to avoid answering questions from the Senate is a new low from the Albanese Labor Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scrutiny of the government through Senate estimates is a foundation of our parliament and democracy, and is recognised as a major institution of accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The value of estimates hearings in providing accountability and integrity of government is clearly missed by the Albanese Labor Government who will do anything to ensure they aren\u2019t held to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Simon Birmingham said the extracts published from the secret manual demonstrate clear acts of contempt for the Senate and break Prime Minister Albanese\u2019s promises for greater transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Prime Minister has serious questions to answer about this document as to whether he has seen it, did he approve it and to whom has his office distributed it to,\u201d Senator Birmingham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis move by the Labor Government is a new low and shows flagrant disregard for the Senate, the practices of Australia\u2019s parliament and the rights of Australians to see their government held to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor anyone to believe the creation of this manual clever would be sorely mistaken. The Prime Minister and his office should consider the repercussions of attempting to distort the procedures of a democratic parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI fully expect the Senate to demand answers in regard to the flagrant demonstration of contempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrime Minister Albanese would be wise to retract this document and transparently answer questions \u2013 avoiding doing so would only be endorsing its contents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revelations today of a secret manual distributed by the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to departments instructing them how to avoid answering questions from the Senate is a new low from the Albanese Labor Government. Scrutiny of the government through Senate estimates is a foundation of our parliament and democracy, and is recognised as a major institution … Continue reading “Albanese chooses Senate contempt over public accountability”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26391,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26390\/revisions\/26391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}