Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, may I place on the record my congratulations to you on being elected as Speaker. The hour is late, so I will very succinctly summarise my key concerns with this motion and why I strongly oppose it. This parliament exists to represent all people in our country. Every single one of us here shares the responsibility of ensuring that those we represent are heard and are well represented in this place. Central to that representation is making sure that the whole of the executive of government and individual ministers are held accountable for their actions. Put simply, that is just not possible if ministers do not turn up when parliament is sitting. And that is the key proposal under this motion: no questions to ministers and no MPI. The former Attorney-General, the member for Berowra, has raised some very significant constitutional and legal issues that I have grave concerns about. The government has not answered these questions, which have been raised now by several of my colleagues. In the Governor-General’s speech today we heard that two key tenets of the new government are accountability and transparency. I have to say that the government has failed this test on day one. This motion denies accountability and it denies the right of every single one of us in this place to ensure that we can do our jobs effectively.

The government certainly has failed the test of transparency on just one issue alone. On numerous occasions tonight, the government has been asked to table the legal advice upon which this motion is based. Why is it that the government will not table that legal advice? For all of these reasons, I oppose this motion. It is fraught with too many difficulties. It has the real potential to stifle the ability of individual members to do their jobs. I strongly oppose the motion. I would urge the government to reconsider its position, and I certainly support the amendments of the opposition.

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