Greens Barbara Pocock on the quest for greater transparency

Written by: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock – who has a background in economics and industrial relations and formerly worked at the Reserve Bank, in the federal public service and as an academic – has been in parliament only since the 2022 election, But she has already made a mark.

Pocock has been one of the federal parliamentarians who has been holding the big consultancy firms to account this year.

PWC especially has felt the heat over its improper use of confidential government tax information for its commercial gain. The behaviour of the other consultancies has also been under strong scrutiny. Pocock and other members of parliament have shown how the parliamentary committee system can be used to great effect to hold big companies accountable when other avenues fail.

In this podcast, the Greens senator talks of the need for action to bring greater transparency.

We need to have better protection for whistleblowers and we also need to deal with the really significant problems where entities within the government, in our tax architecture, have failed to be able to share information and really respond to bad behaviour.

Pocock details how the findings have been damning against PWC, pointing to:

that first report made by our Senate committee into the PWC scandal, where very strong language is used about the betrayal of the public sector and of the Australian people.

There was collaboration across parties to get to the bottom of this issue:

It is very collaborative and often you’ll see a senator asking questions followed by a senator from another party pursuing the same issues, trying to get to the bottom of what’s happened and really think hard about what remedies are needed to fix this.

On the issue of the recent High Court ruling that people cannot be held indefinitely in immigration detention, Pocock says:

For me, it feels very reminiscent of the Tampa moment where I happened to be working in the Parliament in the year 2000, 2001 for [the Australian Democrats’] Natasha Stott Despoja as an adviser. And it feels like the creation of, you know, another group of people who we are meant to despise and feel frightened of.

On the party’s prospects at the next election, Pocock is confident the Greens represent what many Australians want:

We’re very keen to continue the conversation that began in that last election with people talking about the need to see a really strong, independent and environmentally inclined a party like the Greens, which stands up for climate action and stands up on social justice.