Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to comment on the government’s trashing of very important principles in this place. It is clear by the actions of the government, indeed by the Prime Minister, that those supposed long-held principles of ministerial accountability and federalism have been jettisoned by this government since it managed to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate at the last election.

In the first term of the Howard government we saw at least some attempt to respond to ministerial accountability. Some ministers resigned when it was clear that they had breached those principles. In fact, a whole host of ministers in the government between 1996 and 1998 resigned because they believed they had breached those fundamental principles. But since that time there has been not one minister who has clearly breached ministerial accountability and responsibility who has taken the honest and dignified decision to resign.

Since 1998 we have seen a government that refuses to accept the long-held Westminster values that I thought the Prime Minister cherished. Clearly, his code of conduct and his attitude towards ministerial accountability have never been true, have never been an article of faith. Indeed, he has shown that again this week, where we have clearly illustrated that the government has been responsible for allowing for a $300 million bribe, most of which, it appears, has gone directly to the Saddam Hussein regime. That money has been directly paid to what the Prime Minister was saying only some years ago was an enemy of this country. We have seen that bribe go from the Australian Wheat Board. Under the purview of the government, that board has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Saddam Hussein. We do not know where that money has been spent, what that money has been spent on or when it was spent, and the actual royal commission does not provide terms of reference for us to investigate those matters.

Indeed, not only has the Prime Minister failed in upholding those very important principles of ministerial accountability by ensuring that Minister for Trade and Deputy Prime Minister Vaile resign because of the fundamental breach we have seen in this place; instead we have witnessed stonewalling, lying and denying. We saw it last term. We saw it with ‘kids overboard’. We are seeing it time and time again by this government because it refuses to accept that there are values in this place. There are principles that are supposed to be upheld, and none of them are being adhered to by this Prime Minister and his ministers.

I say of the Prime Minister and the government: it is about time they remembered that there are values that our community expects us to uphold and adhere to. We are role models for our community. If the Prime Minister does not know that, he will find out soon, because in my electorate, and I am sure in every electorate that is represented in this place, more and more people are asking why it is that the Prime Minister will not allow proper terms of reference to ensure that all things are examined in this disgraceful scandal that has beset us. Why is it that the Senate committee that should be investigating some of these matters was not allowed to properly examine the Public Service in a way to ensure that the community is provided with answers to this dreadful situation? Why is it that the Prime Minister is abusing his power in this place and, indeed, in the Senate—in both houses—by denying a proper examination of the facts? We know the answer to that. It is because this government is about lying and denying the truth. In fact, when the truth is clearly evident for all to see, this government is refusing to accept the long-held principles of ministerial accountability in this place.

I think ministers erred before 1998 in the first term of this government, but at least the ministers then had the dignity to resign when they were fundamentally in breach of those principles. Clearly, there has not been any acceptance of responsibilities by ministers in this AWB scandal. It is about time they did something. The wheat farmers are hurting. Their long-term interests have been trashed as a result of the government’s failure, and no doubt it is also the case with the sugar farmers. The sugar farmers were sold out by the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, and now the wheat farmers— (Time expired)