Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. The government does regard the integrity and transparency of the parliamentary process and the behaviour of elected representatives very seriously, that is why it takes the accusations that were made by the Leader of the Opposition last Friday extremely seriously. The government has taken a number of very important steps to enhance the integrity and transparency of the process of parliament and elected representatives, such as electoral reform, which unfortunately is blocked in the Senate, that would reduce the limit on donations and ban foreign donations, such as the Operation Sunlight set of transparency reforms for budget disclosure and such as the involvement of the Auditor-General in scrutinising government advertising to determined that it is not politically motivated.

Although the government is committed to all of these reforms and others to ensure that we maximise the quality of behaviour and the transparency, accountability and integrity of our parliamentary process and representatives, we unfortunately cannot prevent everything from occurring. Sadly, last Wednesday night at the press gallery ball there was an incident involving the Leader of the Opposition which indicated the limits that are there whether we like it or not because of the behaviour of individuals who do not seem to treat the obligations and responsibilities of their offices seriously. I would like to quote from the statement circulated by Mr Andrew Charlton, adviser to the Prime Minister, about this incident. His recollection of the statements by the Leader of the Opposition to him at that event—

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