Senator CHRIS EVANS (3:16 PM) —If ever proof was needed that the government was keeping these matters secret, it was Senator Lightfoot's speech. He clearly knows nothing about these issues at all. The MRI issue is a very serious one. It has been described by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Dr Wooldridge, himself as a scam. His concerns about this matter were largely as a result of the Labor Party pursuing it in the parliament for the last year and pursuing it in the estimates hearings for the last year. It is only because of the pursuit of those matters by the Labor opposition that the minister has finally taken some action. We have been after him on this issue for almost a year now.

The Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Senator Herron, in his question time response, accused me of hiding behind the advice of the Senate Clerk, Mr Evans—no relation, I might point out. It is important to say that I am relying on the advice of the Clerk in these issues, because he has provided a very comprehensive debunking of the government's defence for failing to produce the documents requested by the order of the Senate. There is no defence that is plausible or that can be sustained by the government for refusing to release the documents that we have requested in relation to the MRI scam. The Senate Clerk in describing the government defence in his letter of yesterday said:

. . . but new, unexplained and obscure grounds seem to be multiplying.

That is because the government is making them up on the run. We have now in the last month had five public interest immunity defences offered by the government—by Senator Newman and Senator Herron—to justify the proposition that the public interest is best served by the public not knowing what is going on, that the less the public know the more the public interest is served. That is the government's proposition. In the last month, they have offered five different grounds for that. Senator Faulkner referred to the two used by Senator Newman. Senator Herron, in his letter the other day, used a further three, including—and this is the doozey of them all; this is the real doozey—that the `Government's relationship with the profession and the future supply of information to the Government' could be prejudiced if they released information pertaining to the decision on MRI. The government's relationship with the profession could be prejudiced!

That is the basis of their decision not to release to the public the information vital to this issue. It is the government's relationship with the profession that is at the core of the problem here. They cosied up to the profession from February to May last year, in the process of making a budget decision. The minister, in his recent explanation to the parliament, said that in that period 48 new contracts for MRIs were allegedly signed. Forty-eight! That is almost as many as were in existence in the 10 or 15 years prior to that process commencing.

It is his relationship with the profession that is at the core of the problem. In the few months from February to the May budget decision, 48 new contracts for these million-dollar machines were signed. He admits a scam occurred. We knew a scam occurred, because we have been investigating this matter for almost a year now. But he admits the scam occurred because something in the relationship between the minister's office and the profession allowed it to become common knowledge that the budget decision would open up the Medicare rebate for the MRIs. Because of his concern and the public concern about this issue, the minister has been forced to remove that Medicare rebate. Those MRIs are no longer eligible for it while investigations take place.

We have been after this information since February. I want to concentrate on the minister's defence now that somehow it might prejudice the DPP investigations into MRI contracts. Not only does the Senate Clerk, Mr Evans, debunk that as total nonsense, but the HIC, the body that are investigating this matter, when I asked them about it in May of this year, made it very clear on the Hansard record that they had no problem with this information being released. Mr Watzlaff said in direct answer to a question by me:

In terms of the identified information, I wouldn't have any difficulty then because there would be no prejudice to the investigations. The investigations would be complete, the briefs would be done, the matters would be referred.

He is referring to them being referred to the DPP for prosecution. He made it clear that in his opinion in July this year that information would be able to be released to the opposition and to the public. The HIC had no problem with us having the information in about July. Here we are at the start of December and the government are inventing more and more excuses to hide the secrets of the MRI scam, to hide what happened between them and the profession that caused this scam to be perpetrated. To say that they cannot release the information to the public because it might harm their relationship with the profession is ludicrous in the extreme. (Time expired)