Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At its best, politics is a vehicle for enlarging opportunities and expanding our national imagination. At its best, politics carries a national conversation about who we are, who we want to be and how we're going to get there. At their best, politicians carry that national conversation through advocacy and debate in the media, in our communities and in this parliament—advocacy and debate conducted with honesty, openness and respect for people, for institutions and for standards. At their best, politicians not only listen to what it is that others are saying; they strive to understand it and then, sometimes, to persuade. They choose integrity and transparency over spin and sophistry. They admit when they are wrong and they take responsibility for their mistakes.

When politicians don't do that, politics, politicians and the national conversation are dumbed down and this parliament is diminished in its capacity to tackle difficult challenges, and the trust of the Australian people in politics, democracy and government declines. Sadly, that is what has occurred under the Morrison government; it might not have started there, but the decline in democracy has certainly become worse under this government. Before Helloworld and Paladin; before Clive Palmer influenced the outcome of an election with an extraordinary sum of money; before the unresolved pile of ethical and legal scandals surrounding Angus Taylor; before the AFP raided journalists' homes and places of work; before the media reported revelations of links between Liberal donors and health funding decisions; before the Prime Minister's office refused under FOI to reveal how much taxpayers' money was spent on his Hawaiian holiday during a national emergency; before the Prime Minister denigrated and undermined this national parliament by calling it a bubble, shutting down debate on topics the government doesn't like, and refusing to provide explanations to the parliament and the Australian people on difficult issues; and before Australia burnt—before all of this, less than half of all Australians were satisfied with the way democracy works. Before all of this, we had already seen trust in government in a 20-year slide—from 48 per cent to 26 per cent. The democracy alarm bells are ringing, and they have been ringing for some time. But, instead of taking heed of the warnings, this government has amassed that list of scandals, actions, inactions and decisions—and so much more—which have only served to make the trust deficit in politics so much worse.

And now we have the sports rorts. The Prime Minister has seriously undermined the public's trust in politicians by leading a government that has treated taxpayers' money as its own political campaign pot and has treated community sports clubs and volunteers like mugs. And then Mr Morrison got his former chief of staff, now secretary of his department, to produce a report that the public is not allowed to see, backing the government's sport rorts and contradicting the findings of the actually independent Auditor-General that it was clear that the focus was on marginal electorates held by the coalition as well as those electorates held by other parties or independent members that were to be targeted by the coalition at last year's election.

We know that almost half the funds of first-round applicants went to politically targeted seats and we know that this political corruption ramped up until the third round, where clubs that didn't make applications got grants and clubs that ranked 98 out of 100 didn't. And we all, of course, know about the infamous colour-coded spreadsheet and the email evidence that the Prime Minister's office was involved in the whole tawdry affair. As David Thodey said in his recent review of the Australian public service, 'Scepticism is part of a healthy democracy, but extreme low trust is detrimental.' There are many drivers of trust in the public sector, but integrity is the most crucial determinate. Mr Morrison's decision to involve Mr Gaetjens in what looks and smells very much like a political cover-up, and Mr Gaetjens' decision to do Morrison's bidding, has undermined and compromised a public service full of tremendous people who are doing their best day in, day out to serve this country.

This government is dumbed down by its refusal to accept the urgency of mitigating man-made climate change. Its reliance on political advertising and spin over straight talk and policy action is embarrassing. We must do better. We must have better behaviour and processes in question time, better integrity in the political system and ICAC upholding principles of Westminster responsibility. I believe all parliamentarians— (Time expired)

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before I call the next member, I remind the member for Dunkley in future to refer to members of this House by their correct titles.