Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be speaking on the matter of superannuation, and I take the opportunity to address each of the issues that have been raised in a thoughtful contribution by the member for Curtin. I disagree with the conclusions that have been drawn and I particularly disagree with the arguments that have been made by the member for Fadden, and there are a lot of reasons that I disagree with the arguments and the motivation. We can separate those things, but in this instance the campaign that has been run by the member for Fadden and his colleagues in this party is built on dishonesty, frankly, and I'll address the reason. It comes in the name of transparency but it also comes from the party that, frankly, refused to tell Australians its prime minister had secretly sworn himself into a whole number of ministries without telling the parliament or the people of Australia. The member for Fadden might argue, 'We didn't know; that error wasn't on us.' But, when they had the opportunity to distance themselves from this behaviour, they backed him in a vote on a censure motion in the parliament.

The motion is moved on the very day the parliament has heard the former minister for human services secretly commissioned a $1 million report and then buried it because he didn't like what the report told him. And it's moved by a former minister who, frankly, had to be relieved of his former duties in his portfolio because of his behaviour, which did not meet ministerial standards.

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