Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know this is going to come a shock to people. I know that he is seen as a bit of a beacon in this place for people on the opposite side. But let me tell you what a good Prime Minister would have done. What would a good Prime Minister have done? Do you think a good Prime Minister would publish in September a statement of ministerial standards and then ignore it in October, November and December. Would a good Prime Minister publish a statement of ministerial standards that talks about public office being a public trust, that talks about accountability, that talks about responsibility, that talks about integrity and then in October and then in November and then in December disregard entirely those words in that statement of ministerial standards when one of his own ministers was the subject of a police raid—an Australian Federal Police raid?

I know a lot of people in this House have read the warrant, but maybe some people outside it have not. If you read the search warrant, it refers to section 478.1 of the Criminal Code, which makes it an offence for somebody to have unauthorised access to restricted data, and there is accessorial liability as well. The search warrant also refers to section 70 of the Commonwealth Crimes Act, which also makes it an offence to give someone a document that you get as a public Commonwealth officer. What is the penalty for each of those two offences? The penalty is two years imprisonment. That is the seriousness of those offences that have been cited as a basis for the search warrant being issued.

When you hear the members of the government benches standing up and saying, 'This isn't important. There are other priorities. What are you talking about this for, opposition? I want to talk about infrastructure for five minutes,' unfortunately for the members of the government benches, integrity is important. Integrity is important because trust in politics is important. If you do not understand the importance of integrity, then none of you is fit for public office, because integrity matters to the Commonwealth. Integrity matters to the Australian people. Integrity matters to faith in our democracy.

In a time when there is so little faith in our democracy, a time when Lowy Institute polling is showing that people are not convinced of democracy as a concept and that there is disengagement across this nation from our democracy and from trust and faith in politics, these people have the gall to turn up here and say, 'It doesn't matter. What's integrity? Why are we talking about integrity?' We are talking about integrity because integrity goes to the heart of any government's character, and character goes to the heart of any government's ability to be trusted. Without trust, without character and without integrity, this government has no mandate and no basis. The Prime Minister should take action now under his own Statement of Ministerial Standards and stand up for integrity.

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