Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is very important. It's very important not only to the Australian public and our democracy; it is also important in restoring trust and pride in the way that governments behave and execute their responsibilities. I thank the member for Bennelong and, before him, the member for Dunkley and the member for Solomon for their very pertinent remarks about this bill and its need to assure the Australian people that what happened under the previous Prime Minister could never happen again.

I thank the Attorney-General and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for introducing and advocating this bill, which I'm proud to support. Again, it's part of the Albanese government restoring faith to the Australian people in our system of government and in the way in which we govern. It's a combination of a number of measures that will prevent the actions that the previous Prime Minister, the member for Cook, took in assuming responsibility for multiple portfolios in the previous government.

The actions of the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, have been widely documented, and rightly so; however, they only came to light many, many months after the fact, and only once there had been a change in government and some light had been shed on his behaviour. I'm not so sure that anything has changed in the coalition. Of course, they voted against the censure motion. They have not demonstrated any real change in philosophy and, as much as anything else, they seem to be in shock that we feel the behaviour was wrong. It was a shock. It was a shock to all Australians: to members of parliament, to constituents and even to the many ministers that the former Prime Minister had taken portfolios from or whose portfolios he had assumed responsibility for. Yet, during it all, the then Prime Minister, the member for Cook, continued to doggedly deny any opportunity for a federal Anti-Corruption Commission, and now I think we know why. Transparency and accountability were not something that he believed in or encouraged.

Thankfully, the Albanese government does not stand by or support such behaviour. We're getting on with the job of establishing a National Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 also exemplifies this. Australia has a robust democracy that depends on transparency. It is important that every citizen feels that they are part of the government and can actually interact with the government about matters that are important to them. Our philosophy is that the Australian people have the right to choose their government and their representatives and a right to see how the government functions and how their representatives do truly represent their views.

Sadly, this incident with the former Prime Minister shows how vulnerable this philosophy can be when the wrong people do the wrong things with little or no accountability. The former Prime Minister, of course, has said here in this parliament that, if he'd been asked by a journalist, by a colleague or even by a constituent about his secret portfolios, he would have told them the truth. He said that in retrospect. He even, when questioned, of course, said he couldn't remember some of the portfolios or when he assumed responsibility for them. With respect to the former Prime Minister, even the most forgiving people do not believe that.

We saw, over a decade of coalition government, an erosion of transparency and accountability. I think this is a philosophical issue and a philosophical problem within the coalition. We see that in their very behaviour. We see that in their continual refusal to have a representative party that represents all Australians. They deny women positions of power. They deny, for example, the most disadvantaged the rights of ordinary citizens, and we are seeing that evolve in the robodebt scandal. And it is a scandal. We saw no ministers in the previous government stand up and admit what was very, very wrong with a system that targeted the most vulnerable and the most disadvantaged in our community. Then, when publicly questioned about it, they leaked information about the most vulnerable people to right-wing journalists to try and punish the people who were complaining about a system that was manifestly unfair. There has been no action from the coalition on this. The robodebt royal commission is still evolving, and I am sure there will be more things that we will find out about it, but we know the philosophy of the coalition involved secret consultations that punished the most vulnerable and didn't allow people to see what was happening to the most vulnerable in our society. We see the total lack of responsibility shown for these people by the previous government.

There has been a decade of former prime ministers, including the member for Wentworth, the member for Warringah et cetera, where manipulations, secret funding arrangements et cetera were foisted upon the Australian public in a very, very unfair manner.

The action of the former Prime Minister to secretly appoint himself to multiple ministries, with the collusion of the Governor-General him, without informing the Australian people is very sinister, but it is also just a symptom of the secretive philosophy of punishing the vulnerable and of not allowing the Australian public to see the truth. It was a philosophy that continued for 10 years under the coalition government. As I said, I'm not convinced that anything has changed.

The actions of the former Prime Minister and his government were contrary to the spirit of an open democracy. They should never be repeated, and this legislation is part of the remedy for that. It's not just Labor politicians who are saying that; previous prime ministers have said it. The previous member for Bennelong John Howard was critical of the former Prime Minister's action, as was the former member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull et cetera. It was a symptom of a government that did not respect the democracy that we all cherish. I think those opposite are paying the price for it now and will continue to pay the price for some time. The advice of the Solicitor-General, Steven Donaghue KC, who was tasked by our government to review the former Prime Minister's actions was that 'the principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined' by the actions of the former government. I agree with him.

Our democracy depends on a form of government that allows every citizen to feel involved and see how it works. The fact that this very building and this chamber allow the public to look at our debates, to view their representatives and to see how we debate different issues is in this spirit, and long may it continue so. The fact that our constituents can visit us in our office and question us about policy, our behaviour and how we represent their wishes is part of that open democracy. I am not convinced that the coalition understands that even now. That is why this bill is so important. It will implement reforms to provide greater transparency and accountability at the Commonwealth level of government. It will stop things like the rorting of sports grants and the rorting of grants intended for flood relief et cetera during previous natural disasters. It will stop that rorting. The previous coalition government saw nothing wrong with that rorting. Their behaviour was absolutely shameful, and it is only now being exposed. But I don't hear anyone from the coalition apologising for that behaviour. That behaviour is a fundamental undermining of our whole system of government.

We've heard in New South Wales that the philosophy of the Liberal and National parties is that rorting is okay. We heard from the previous leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales that rorting is okay: 'Everyone does it. We call it pork-barrelling, but it's actually okay. Don't worry about it.' How do you think people who are the victims of natural disasters or who have been left out of grants because they happened to live in Labor electorates feel about that? This is a fundamental issue, and I believe that the coalition will never recover from their last election loss until they actually understand that.

The robodebt royal commission is very important. The findings are shocking even to me, who was expecting some bad things to be found out. It's even worse than I imagined, and I think those opposite should be absolutely ashamed of that. I hope that at some stage they will apologise for their behaviour.

Over many years we have seen from the coalition contempt for transparency and appropriate behaviour, and it was seen in many representatives from the previous government. It's not just the Prime Minister. Whilst he may have been head of the government and encouraged that philosophy of rorting, opaqueness and lack of honesty, many ministers in the previous government shared that behaviour. Whether it be the sports rorts, the carpark rorts or robodebt, they were carried out by the previous government and the previous ministers under the Prime Minister. They were not done in the best interest of Australian democracy.

In my own interest in health care, I do think some of the actions of the previous government at the beginning of the pandemic were great and brave. The closing of the borders, the restrictions on movement, et cetera, were very important in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and they were very brave. But subsequent actions really have confirmed to me that the previous government was a government that was not acting in the best interest of the Australian people.

Just imagine if the previous Prime Minister had installed himself as health minister. Imagine what damage he could have done if he wanted to enforce other, more Draconian measures like some governments overseas had done. He could have done that, overruling the health minister. It's only now that we realise that. Imagine what he could have done on border security, having taken over responsibility for home affairs. Imagine what damage the previous Prime Minister could have done. Whilst this may seem theoretical, it is very important that we do secure our democracy for the future. We can do that, and this bill is part of it. I congratulate the government for bringing this bill to the House.

I think that, though there is a greater philosophy involved, and I hope those in the coalition will eventually understand that, to me, the actions of the previous Prime Minister and his government are shocking. Time is making it look worse and worse as we discover more things, particularly with the robodebt disaster. I know many of my constituents contacted me about it, devastated by being incorrectly being given large bills to pay back to the government. The Albanese Labor government is a more compassionate and a much better and open government. I commend this bill to the House as a way of reinforcing that.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

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