'Transparent, accountable government' hides key climate documents

The Rudd Government's promises to bring transparency and accountability back to government have been exposed as empty rhetoric, Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne said today.

Senator Milne, with the support of the Opposition, had called on the Government to table the Wilkins Review into climate policy and a document circulated to industry by Minister Ferguson's office detailing a softened approach to emissions trading. Senate rules bound the Government to table those documents today. However, it failed to do so.

Senator Milne said "The Rudd Government has sent a clear signal today that nothing has changed in terms of transparency and accountability in government since the Howard years. Indeed, Senator Sherry relied on Howard Government precedent when refusing to let the Australian community see what advice Roger Wilkins had given the Government.

"Calling the Wilkins Review 'Cabinet in Confidence' when key details have already been leaked to supportive media, is disingenuous in the extreme.

"In a contest between public interest and dubious "cabinet confidentiality", the public lost again. The community, who have clearly said they want to be consulted on climate policy, have now been denied the opportunity to influence the decisions the Government takes on Wilkins' advice.

"The community will eventually get hold of the Wilkins Review, but not until it is too late.

"The claim that the document circulated by Minister Ferguson's office, designed to undermine the government's preferred position on emissions trading, was just working notes of an individual, demonstrates that the Greenhouse Mafia is alive and well in the Rudd Government's ministerial offices and bureaucracy.

"No-one should forget Guy Pearce's expose of how deeply the big polluters, who called themselves the Greenhouse Mafia, had embedded themselves in the Howard Government. It is clear that this is still the case.

"If the Government truly wants to have a public debate on climate policy, it must release all the relevant documents it has in order to facilitate that debate. Drip-feeding only the information it wants the public to have is the same strategy as the Howard Government, and the Australian people will not accept it."

Contact: Tim Hollo on 0437 587 562

Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
ph: (02) 6277 3588
mob: 0437 587 562

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