Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

That was a fairly extraordinary contribution from the Minister for the Environment, which is a title many members of the environmental movement say now with tongue in cheek. The Abbott government has certainly failed its first test of integrity. Mr Abbott's assistant health minister, Senator Nash, has breached the Prime Minister's ministerial standards. Let me take you to those standards. They are standards that require that ministers act with the greatest integrity of office, not allow their decisions to be affected by bias and make decisions in the public interest. In fact, that is principle 1.3 under those standards, which says:

(i) Ministers must ensure that they act with integrity …

(ii) Ministers must observe fairness in making official decisions—that is, to act honestly and reasonably, with consultation as appropriate to the matter at issue …

(iii) Ministers must accept accountability for the exercise of the powers and functions of their office—that is, to ensure that their conduct, representations and decisions … are open to public scrutiny and explanation.

By any standard, the Assistant Minister for Health has failed those standards.

There was a conflict of interest at the heart of her office. That conflict has led to an infected public policy decision. It is so corrupted by the conflict of interest that the only way to resolve it is for the Minister for Health to reverse it. The Minister for Health claims to be so concerned about the health impacts of obesity and diabetes, but he has let this infected public policy decision stand. Worse, he has allowed the ridiculous antics of the member for Herbert to mock a health policy that every public health and obesity expert in the country supports. Sixty-six eminent public health professionals have written that this infected public policy decision should absolutely be reversed, and all he can do is mock.

Instead, the government has sought to destroy two years of work on the health star rating system and to trash the strong relationships that the former shadow parliamentary secretary, the member for Boothby, spent years developing with the sector. They trashed those relationships with the sector that the member for Boothby developed. The member for Boothby has shown some integrity in this debate by standing up for the health star rating system. A former health professional himself—

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