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Anthony Albanese entered office vowing transparency — yet secret discussions over ISIS brides, a collapse in FOI compliance, and extravagant spending scandals reveal a government refusing to live up to its own lofty promises.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese entered office in 2022 resolving that “the Australian people deserve accountability and transparency, not secrecy”.

In a speech the same year, he declared, “Our democracy is precious, something we have carefully grown and nurtured from one generation to the next. One of our core responsibilities is to make it stronger, and key to that strength is transparency and accountability.”

Indeed, on the topic of transparency, Mr Albanese has sought to define his government in contrast to that of his predecessor, claiming:

We’re shining sunlight on a shadow government that preferred to operate in darkness, a government that operated in a cult of secrecy and a culture of cover-up, which arrogantly dismissed scrutiny from the parliament and the public as a mere inconvenience.

However, a string of concerning events from just the past week bely these lofty claims.

Scandals Go Public

Last Wednesday, leaked documents revealed that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke held a private meeting with immigration activists on the repatriation of ISIS brides.

During that meeting, Mr Burke asked a senior public servant to leave the room so he could speak “frankly” behind closed doors, and he thanked the group for keeping their lobbying efforts out of the media.

Then on Friday, lawyers for the Albanese government secured a highly unusual 30-year suppression order blocking access to evidence in the judicial review of Tanya Plibersek’s decision to halt the $1 billion Blayney gold mine.

Even more unusually, the decision centred on an Indigenous heritage claim submitted at the last minute regarding… wait for it… a Dreaming story about the blue-banded bee.

Over the weekend, the scandals only multiplied.

On Saturday, the Brittany Higgins saga was back in the headlines, with The Australian scrutinising the Albanese government for embellishing the story and weaponising Higgins’ sexual assault for political ends.

In particular, court rulings have since found that Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher’s cover-up claims were false — allegations that underpinned Higgins’ $2.4 million payout and maximised political damage to the Morrison government.

On the same day, The Saturday Paper reported that the Albanese government has been telling lobbyists to shift sensitive discussions onto encrypted messaging platforms — and to even use disappearing messages — in order to bypass official channels and put them beyond the reach of freedom of information (FOI) laws.

Anika Wells’ Spending Spree

Then on Sunday, we began learning about Communication and Sports Minister Anika Wells’ lavish spending sprees on the taxpayer’s dime. In the days since, the revelations have only continued.

While many Australian families have been struggling to keep a roof over their heads, we now know that Ms Wells has charged taxpayers:

• $120,000 on three separate trips to Paris, where she also spent $1,750 on luxury dinners
• $100,000 on flights to attend a three-day United Nations General Assembly trip in New York
• $8,500 across three AFL grand final weekends
• $4,000 to fly her husband to three high-profile cricket events over three years, including two Boxing Day Tests
• $3,000 to fly her husband and children to Thredbo to join her for a skiing trip
• $1,800 to attend the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix with her husband, despite having received multiple free tickets
• $1,000 to have a government Comcar wait seven hours while she attended the Australian Open final

On being questioned about the lavish spending, Anthony Albanese has defended Ms Wells — and why wouldn’t he? He leads the same government that wants to start charging fees for FOI requests and limit what documents can be released under the scheme.

His is the same government under which fully granted FOI requests have collapsed to just 25 per cent, outright refusals have nearly doubled to 23 per cent, and appeal wait times have blown out to an average 15.5 months.

His is the same government that now complies with only 33 per cent of Senate orders to produce documents — a far worse record than the Morrison government it accused of operating in secrecy.

Mr Albanese’s lofty claims about transparency, it turns out, were little more than posturing and political theatre.

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Image courtesy of Unsplash.