Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberal Party came into government in 2013 promising that theirs would be a trustworthy government, a government of integrity. What a hollow promise that was. This government has trashed that promise, just as it trashed all the others it made before taking office. No—whatever they promised, this is a manifestly untrustworthy government. This is a government with no integrity.

The new Prime Minister likes to talk. He likes to talk about how exciting everything is, now that he is in charge. He likes to talk about the future. The Prime Minister wants to talk about anything but the grubbiness of the recent past—the grubbiness of the Abbott opposition and the grubbiness of the Abbott government. But, make no mistake, this government still stinks of the most tawdry episodes of the Abbott era in Australian politics. Key figures from that era now occupy central positions in the Turnbull government. The Prime Minister does not have a clean slate. In fact, he has elevated to his inner circle people who even the former Prime Minister repudiated.

Today's matter of public importance is government integrity. On 21 September, the Prime Minister appointed the member for Fisher—the architect of one of the grubbiest episodes of the Abbott government era—Special Minister of State, the minister responsible for integrity in government

That was an incredible appointment and, as we now see, an incredible failure of judgement by the Prime Minister. Perhaps he felt indebted to the member for Fisher, who was a key member of the group who orchestrated the Prime Minister's ambush of the member for Warringah on 14 September. The member for Fisher never misses the chance for a good plot, and he was right in the thick of that one, too. Having stewed on the back bench under the member for Warringah, he was richly rewarded by the new Prime Minister for the part he played in the member for Warringah's downfall. Well, the chickens have now come home to roost.

On 17 November, the Australian Federal Police raided the home of the member for Fisher in the execution of a search warrant. The member for Fisher described this, quaintly, as a 'visit' to his home by the police. But this was no social call. The Australian published the part of the search warrant which sets out the proposed criminal charges being considered against the member for Fisher. These are serious matters indeed. I will read from that document, in which it is alleged:

Between 23 March and 13 April 2012, Malcolm Thomas Brough, born 29 December 1961, counselled and procured James Hunter Ashby, being a Commonwealth officer, to disclose extracts from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Peter Slipper's 2009 to 2012 official diary, and provide those extracts to third parties without authority, contrary to section 70(1) of the Crimes Act …

It alleges further:

Between 23 March and 13 April 2012, Malcolm Thomas Brough, born 29 December 1961, counselled and procured James Hunter Ashby … to access restricted data, namely the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Peter Slipper's 2009 to 2012 official diary, contrary to section 478.1 of the Criminal Code.

These are serious offences at any time but all the more so when they are alleged to have been committed by a man who must be held to the highest standards. Let us recall the context of this conduct. This was part of a conspiracy between the member for Fisher and two employees of the former Speaker of this House which involved taking parts of the Speaker's diary. The aim of the member for Fisher was to destroy the Speaker and to take his seat. It appears that he would stoop to any means to achieve that aim. It did not matter how low, how improper and how inappropriate the means were. This former cabinet minister was ready to go to these lengths. The member for Fisher, more than most Australians, should have respected the office of the Speaker, should have respected this parliament and must have understood just how grubby his conduct was. The member for Fisher has never explained his involvement with James Ashby and the other employee of the Speaker, because it simply stinks.

This is the man that the Prime Minister considers fit not only to serve as a minister of the Commonwealth but to preside over standards of integrity in government.    Australians are meant to accept that a man who is, by his own admission, under investigation by the Australian Federal Police for criminal wrongdoing is fit to set standards for propriety in public office. In the Turnbull government, a man whose home has been raided by the Federal Police and against whom the Federal Police are considering laying very serious criminal charges is meant to be the arbiter of integrity.

This is not just about the member for Fisher, a man who would—we can now see—do anything to advance his own interests and to realise his ambitions to return to the parliament. No, this is about the judgement of the man who has fulfilled those ambitions: the new Prime Minister. This is about the judgement of a Prime Minister who appointed, as his minister responsible for government integrity, a discredited figure over whom loom allegations of serious misconduct. It is about the judgement of a Prime Minister who stands by the member for Fisher, even after the Australian Federal Police have raided his home and even as they are considering serious charges against him. Surely, the Prime Minister was aware of the member for Fisher's involvement in the Abbott opposition's desperate plotting to bring down the Labor government by even the most underhanded of means. Surely, the Prime Minister had seen the member for Fisher's appearance on 60 Minutes in September 2014, when the member for Fisher admitted to asking James Ashby to take parts of the former Speaker's diary. Surely, the Prime Minister knew that this behaviour, freely admitted by the member for Fisher, could be criminal conduct under Commonwealth law. Surely, he knew that Labor had referred this matter to the Australian Federal Police.

Did the member for Fisher offer the Prime Minister a full disclosure of these matters before his appointment as a minister? Did the Prime Minister ask for such a disclosure, or is that the approach that this Prime Minister takes to the standards of conduct that he expects of the people he appoints as ministers? He probably did not even ask. Did he know that the member for Fisher was under investigation by the Federal Police? Did he even care? The Prime Minister has had the chance in question time this week to clear up all of this. The Prime Minister has had the chance to provide the explanation for his own conduct and the conduct of the member for Fisher—an explanation the Australian people deserve. The Australian people deserve a full explanation from the member for Fisher as to just what his involvement was in the bringing down of the former Speaker. They deserve an explanation of just how he conspired—as a Federal Court judge put it—with members of the staff of the Speaker. These were people who were trusted by the Speaker of this House to serve his interests, not the base political interests of the then would-be member for Fisher. We deserve an explanation. This House deserves an explanation. The Australian people deserve an explanation. In particular, the Prime Minister needs to explain why he thought it fit to appoint the member for Fisher as the Special Minister of State.

I asked the Prime Minister whether he still had confidence in the minister, but this Prime Minister, who normally relishes the chance to lecture Australians from the dispatch box, did not have much to say at all on this occasion. He does not have anything to say about the extraordinary circumstance of a senior government minister's home being raided by the Australian Federal Police. I ask members to think back: when can they last remember an occasion like this where the home of a minister in the Australian government was raided by the Australian Federal Police in the execution of a search warrant?

The Prime Minister has nothing to say about the member for Fisher's behaviour, only that he apparently retains confidence in him. He does not have anything to say about the standards of behaviour that he expects from his ministers, only that he considers the member for Fisher is fit to serve as the minister responsible for government integrity. Just keep this in mind: this is not any minister. This is the Special Minister of State, who is responsible for a whole range of matters to do with integrity of government, including the Australian Electoral Commission and including the entitlement system for the members of this parliament—a whole range of matters that require him to use and apply the highest standards of integrity.

Australians expect their government to be trustworthy, to be accountable, to display integrity. While the Prime Minister continues to run interference for the member for Fisher, while he continues to refuse to explain why he still has confidence in the member for Fisher, he is failing Australians on every one of these counts. (Time expired)

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