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

The member for Boothby has shown great integrity in this debate, standing up for the health star rating system. I cannot say the same for the Assistant Minister for Health. When the conflict of interest emerged, she tried to cover it up. Now she continues to mislead parliament and refuses to accept responsibility. She misled Senate estimates yesterday. She said her former chief of staff, Alistair Furnival, had resigned his directorship of SMI, which owns the lobbying firm Australian Public Affairs. This is not true. The records show that he still held that directorship on 13 February. She said the Prime Minister's statement of standards allowed for staff to divest interests to their spouses. This is not true. The statement says that transferring interests to family members is not an acceptable form of divestment. Senator Nash told estimates that she had required her chief of staff to divest himself of these interests and directorships. She said: 'I required those undertakings. It was my responsibility. I ensured that they were done.' The trouble is that these things were not done. But now she is refusing to accept any responsibility.

What emerged further last night was just how close this cosy little relationship was between the Prime Minister, the assistant health minister's former chief of staff and the announcement of $16 million for Cadbury. There was only a candidate between them at the announcement of Pollie Pedal, sponsored by Cadbury. There are photos of the Prime Minister and the former chief of staff together, teammates in the Cadbury Pollie Pedal that I was denied the right to have a ride in. If ever there was a case of something being rotten in the state of Denmark then this is absolutely it. The Prime Minister should reverse this infected policy decision now. (Time expired)

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