Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I have moved as an amendment to this bill:

“whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the Government for allowing Ministerial standards and accountability to decline at the same time as Ministerial salaries are increasing”.

It is all very well for ministerial salaries to rise, but what is happening to ministerial standards? They are on the decline. That is what I am pointing out to this House. And the biggest and most serious scandal before this House and before this country is the AWB oil for food scandal and the way in which this government while on the one hand was saying that the Saddam regime was an evil regime on the other hand was propping him up and was his biggest single benefactor to the tune of $300 million.

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