Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Public confidence and credibility in the parliament and its procedures continues to be trashed by the decaying Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. Yesterday, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner confirmed that preliminary inquiries are being conducted into the member for Goldstein for potential breaches of the Privacy Act as chair of the House Economics Committee. It's another blunder by the Liberals in their scare campaign against changes to franking credit refunds to people who don't pay tax. People are outraged that their personal details have been passed on without their consent from a Liberal Party-owned website to Wilson Asset Management, owned by Geoff Wilson and—surprise, surprise—the website is also partly funded by Mr Wilson. People were required to sign a Liberal Party petition as a condition of making a submission to a House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics inquiry. It's a new low for procedures in this place. It comes on the back of Liberal Party MPs handing out membership forms to the LNP at committee hearings and fundraisers on the back of the committee hearings. The committee held a hearing where the timing and location was organised to occur on the same day as a nearby shareholder presentation which was organised by—guess who, wait for it; you'll never guess—Geoff Wilson and Wilson Asset Management. These actions and many more bring into disrepute the standing of the House economics committee, and it's clear that the member for Goldstein must resign as the chair of that committee. If he won't resign, the Prime Minister must sack him.