Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Trust in democracy is already fragile. Parliament is already on the nose. Secret power grabs from politicians do not help. The Greens support this censure motion and all the more so after the speech this morning from the member for Cook, which was a logical and moral abyss. It was an embarrassing mess of unapologetic, inconsistent self-justifications that failed to recognise just how fundamentally the Australian people had been betrayed. Former justice Bell nailed the point in her inquiry. You can't hold a minister to account if you don't know who the minister is. That is a fundamental point.

The member for Cook this morning said that he had in part addressed that. He said that when a ministry list was tabled in here, it came with an asterisk and a footnote that said, 'We should note that sometimes people are sworn in to administer other areas.' Now, ministry list after ministry list was tabled in this place, and not once was this parliament told that the Prime Minister had now other ministerial responsibilities. To say, as the former Prime Minister did this morning, that a footnote at the bottom of a ministry list that he tabled was enough tells us two things. Firstly, no reasonable person in this country or indeed in this parliament could look at that and say, 'Oh, that means the Prime Minister now holds a number of secret ministries'—no-one. It beggars belief that any reasonable person could read that and think that. Secondly, the fact that he came in here and relied on that today tells us he knew there was a problem at the time. He knew at the time that what he was doing needed some form of disclosure, and now he tells us a footnote at the bottom of a ministry list was enough. Well, the former Prime Minister knew at the time that this was a problem and did not tell people. That is what we have learnt this morning—that he knew at the time that it was a problem and did not tell the parliament.

Fundamental to the operation of this place is that those of us who aren't in the government are able to get up and ask ministers questions in question time, to move motions about ministers' conduct and to bring legislation in front of this place to regulate how ministers operate, and that's especially important for those of us on the crossbench, who don't have the capacity, as an opposition does, to get up member after member in question time and ask a series of repeated questions. We have fewer abilities than an opposition does to hold a government to account, but so many of us were elected on the basis of improving integrity in this place and improving the standard of debate. So the opportunities that we get are precious, and we use them. We've got to be informed about who we're trying to hold to account, and we can't be asking someone about a decision that they make or that they might make if it turns out that actually someone else is secretly responsible. That is the end of accountability in this parliament, if you don't have to tell this parliament who is responsible for making the decisions.

But the former Prime Minister's speech also contained another glaring inconsistency that shows that he just doesn't get it. He on the one hand told us that all of this swearing-in, this secret power grab, was necessary to get us through the pandemic and then on the other hand said that he never exercised any of the powers anyway. Somehow this secret power grab was the key to maintaining Australia's safety, but the powers were never exercised. The two just don't go together, and it shows this absolute lack of contrition and this lack of understanding that is at the heart of why so many people across the political spectrum feel angry about what happened in the last parliament—the failure to be upfront when he knew he should've been upfront and admitted it today, the secret power grab that he says was responsible for everything but that he never exercised. These glaring inconsistencies have, as Virginia Bell said, undermined trust in this place, and action needs to be taken about that.

One of the matters that was mentioned, where he said he did exercise power, was in the question of resources, and that has been canvassed by other speakers. I want to use this as one example. We know, in this place, that one of the questions about integrity is about the relationship between parliamentarians and what happens outside of parliament—the donations that people receive, the jobs they get when they leave this parliament—and that is critically the case when it comes to the resources industry. One of the reasons that trust is undermined in this place is that people legitimately ask questions all the time about the role of vested interests on decisions that get made in this place. People look at this place when it comes to some of those critical matters and say, 'We want to know that you're making decisions here for the benefit of the Australian people and that external influences are not being taken into account.' If there was any area where utter transparency was needed, this has to be in that list. People are entitled to know that when someone—and especially the Prime Minister—is making decisions they're doing it free from the influence of other interests.

When we come in here and hold ministers to account, it's not just about knowing who the right minister is. When the former prime minister swore himself in to be responsible for other ministers, that was—or at the very least could have been perceived to be—a de facto vote of no confidence in those ministers. If the former prime minister has no confidence in the other ministers on his front bench, we are entitled to know that. The parliament is entitled to know that and the Australian people are entitled to know that.

The reason that this has struck a chord with so many people not only in this parliament but also with so many people across the country and across the political spectrum is that this was a betrayal of trust. At a time when we look around the world and we see what happens in other countries and in other parliaments where trust in democracy is eroded, people want their politicians to start telling the truth. This was not only a failure to tell the truth but also came with a power grab added to it. That undermines our belief in our country's ability to trust our democracy, which as a previous speaker has said is an asset of this country. It is to be preserved, and it starts at the top. And if a former prime minister can't be honest with the people, and engages in a power grab, and then can't even bring himself to say sorry for it and doesn't think he's done anything wrong, then that member deserves to be censured.

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