Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After it was revealed that the former Prime Minister secretly appointed himself to five additional ministries, these matters were referred to the Solicitor-General, Dr Stephen Donaghue KC. He advised this, and it's worth quoting this statement: 'The principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined by the actions of the former government.' It's a simple statement. It's clear, concise and simple. Three former Liberal prime ministers of Australia condemned the former Prime Minister for his conduct. (Quorum formed)

That simple statement by Dr Stephen Donaghue KC was followed by condemnation of the former Prime Minister's conduct by no fewer than three former Liberal prime ministers of Australia.

The former Prime Minister refuses—still—to acknowledge how his actions have diminished and impacted our democracy. This is really the fundamental point, here, because some people might ask, 'Why does this matter?' His actions do matter. They matter not only because he was prime minister at the time but also because integrity matters, because transparency matters and because trust in our democratic institutions matter.

At a time not just in Australia but also globally when there is a 'trust deficit' in democracy—when democracies are under fire, under attack, both from external sources and internally, where there's disruption, disinformation and distrust of democratic governance—his actions absolutely matter. His actions have added to the diminishment of trust in our democratic system. From the position of highest office in this country, that of prime minister, that is the last thing you should be doing. You have an obligation and a responsibility not only to your fellow Australians but also to the very core of our democracy—its value. He took actions that diminished that value in the eyes of Australians.

Many Australians see the struggle for democracy around the world. There are many brave people—this is not just a principle—who are protesting in the streets for their freedom, for democracy, and they are dying for those principles. We often take these matters for granted. We talk about them in the abstract.

I draw a comparison: a holder of the highest office and their responsibility and obligation, and the trashing of that integrity, that trust in democracy, through their actions versus a person on the streets of Myanmar, a 20-something protester who is willing to face real bullets to stand up for democracy. Just think about that for a moment. There are tens of thousands of people standing and fighting for their freedom, and for this democracy that we sometimes take for granted. They're fighting for their fundamental rights, and they're doing so in the face of abhorrent repression.

Atrocities have occurred, for example, on the streets of Myanmar. In Iran, there's a revolution for democracy driven by women, led by women—led by young women and girls in high school—who have bravely stood up against a theocratic regime and said, 'Enough!' They're willing to lose their lives for those principles. The people of Myanmar continue to experience the use of force against them—aerial bombing, the burning down of civilian homes and all manner of grave human rights violations that the military junta continue to persist in utilising against the democracy movement. These people believe in democracy. They are willing to die for it.

Crimes against humanity continue against many peoples around the world. Those protesters know what we, at least, know intellectually—that democracy, the freedom that comes with it, is worth fighting for and worth dying for. Thousands have been killed for that principle.

In that context, Australia is one of the world's oldest continuous and successful democracies, and as representatives of that democratic system the least we can do is stand up in solidarity with those people who do not live in a democracy, have had it taken away from them or are fighting for it. It's important that we feel compelled to hear their voices of protest. We can't shut our ears or our eyes to what is happening, and we can't take for granted the hard-fought efforts of previous generations of Australians to fight for the democracy that we benefit from today. Let's be really blunt about this: the actions of the former prime minister in that context are retrograde. They are, effectively, in the eyes of Australians, a complete diminishment of the value of our democracy by the highest office holder in the land.

I mentioned the previous generations of Australians, and we often talk about many previous generations who fought, frankly, against Nazis, and fascism in World War 2, in which 40,000 Australians died. They were fighting to protect and defend Australia. They were also fighting for a better world, a world that was not overcome by totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, like the Nazis and what they represented. That's real courage and commitment to what we see potentially in our day-to-day lives. We don't think about democracy that much; it's more of an abstract principle when we talk about it. But it is very tangible and very real when you don't have it. You can touch it, when you don't have it, and you can see what you're missing, feel what you're missing.

We have to ensure that the people of Australia can trust us as government officials in government and in parliament because we do have an obligation and a responsibility by virtue of the offices that we hold. By virtue of the fact that we are elected representatives to this place, we have a greater responsibility to the national interest with respect to standing up and defending our democracy, not trashing it, not diminishing it, not putting in doubt the integrity of the institutions that Australians rely on. We cannot be complacent in that respect—in fact, in the current climate that we face, with all the attempts to interfere in our system of government and in our democracy and all the attempts at disruption and disinformation, we actually have a responsibility to strengthen these institutions. We have a responsibility to protect our rule of law, to protect our democracy and to restore our international reputation for having robust democratic institutions that ensure the people of Australia can again have trust in our democratic processes.

In this place we do a lot of politics, and sometimes it is quite partisan. But there is also substance and evidence to back up what I'm saying. In 2021 Australia received its worst ever corruption score, a global measurement generated by Transparency International. This score is associated with a lack of integrity. As I said, integrity is the cornerstone of any strong democratic system of government, and it's very closely connected to trust. Integrity reassures the Australian people that their government is working in everyone's best interests. For too long there was no Commonwealth agency devoted to integrity issues or to investigating possible corrupt conduct at the federal level. This gave too many freedoms and enabled the former prime minister to abuse the trust of the Australian people. The decline that we have seen, that lack of integrity and lack of trust that emanated from it, has probably been the most disturbing aspect of that debacle. Those actions weakened, undermined and completely diminished integrity in politics. Most of us here know how hard it is, when we talk to our constituents, to find a constituent that still trusts a politician. There's a lot of cynicism about politics and politicians. Well, those actions of the former Prime Minister really added fuel to that fire, didn't they? It's hard enough to gain the trust of the people we represent without the highest officeholder in the land trashing the integrity of politics.

In 10 short months, I think it's clear to say, and important to note, that the Albanese Labor government is changing this. We've passed legislation in this place to create a powerful, independent and transparent national anticorruption commission—something those opposite refused to do when they were in government; they sat on it. We value transparency, accountability and promptly acting to rebuild integrity in public sector institutions, processes and officials. We need this transparency because our system of parliamentary democracy relies upon such conventions. It relies upon the Westminster system and the traditions of checks and balances, and that is what transparency and accountability are about at the highest levels of government—rebuilding trust, something the Morrison government did not champion.

In conclusion, we should never take our democracy for granted. We should never take trust in our institutions for granted. There are people who are fighting and dying around the world for those principles, for democracy—something that we enjoy here in Australia. The former Prime Minister's actions diminished integrity and trust in our system. That's why we are taking action.

Debate adjourned.

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