Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill puts an end to a sorry saga in Australian contemporary politics. The passing of the Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 will see an end to what was shocking to most Australians. Australia woke to the knowledge that, unbeknownst to the public, unbeknownst to members of his own government, unbeknownst to members of the opposition, the former prime minister Scott Morrison had, between March 2020 and May 2021, been appointed by the Governor-General to administer five portfolios in addition to his appointment to administer the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. There may be those who think this has been some kind of blip on the radar, but we are here with legislation in the chamber because of the serious nature of this. It needs to be corrected. We need to take action to protect our democratic conventions. It is a very sorry day to be in the parliament and to be part of having to protect our democracy in this way.

I note the presence of the member for McPherson and thank her for her response on becoming aware of this situation, because of course there were those in the then government who were sorely put upon in this process as well as those members of the opposition, those members of the crossbench and the public of Australia. It was a shocking thing to discover that our parliamentary conventions had been undermined, had been trashed, by a former prime minister.

It is with some reflection that I think of the actions that have been taken since. We had Solicitor-General's advice to say that what had occurred was incorrect. We had the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Attorney-General establish an inquiry into the appointment of the former prime minister to administer multiple departments which was led by former High Court justice the Honourable Justice Virginia Bell AC, with a final report provided to government on 25 November 2022, which finds us here, looking at legislation to ensure that this could not occur again; that our system of government, our system of parliament, our system of cabinet government could not be undermined in this way again.

It's not something that we can assume a quick fix and move on. It did create a moment where we have to pause and consider the slippery slope of the actions that were taken by the former prime minister and what a slope it put us on. The parliamentarians who sit in this place are elected to represent our communities. Let's face, we are a collection in the House of Representatives of 151 different individuals from all parts of this great country sent here to represent our communities. We participate in our democracy and, in good faith, we come here.

A parliament runs with procedures, with standing orders and with all of those things that are changeable by the parliament within the confines of the parliament. But above and beyond are the democratic conventions that this place depends upon for the smooth running of our country, that we depend upon to know that we have a truly representative democracy. Our democracy had been undermined is what we've found has occurred.

I am reminded, reflecting in preparation to speak on this bill, of the situation we find ourselves in now with a new government. I have great comfort in knowing that we have a prime minister who has served decades in this place, who is first a parliamentarian, a former Leader of the House, a former minister of the Crown and a current prime minister. He is imbued with respect for the parliament, respect for standing orders, respect for procedures and, most importantly, respect for our conventions and for our democracy. One of the first acts of this Prime Minister has been to act to protect that democracy, to right the axis and to say that our representative democracy is at the heart of this country and is something that should and will be protected. That's what this bill does; it puts an end to that sorry saga.

We've heard lots of speakers from around the country speak in what is, I would suggest, the Australian way. We take something serious and, to come to terms with it, sometimes look to humour, and there's been a lot of humour about secret ministries. There's been a lot of humour about a prime minister who didn't discuss these things with his own cabinet or with members of the government but went behind the scenes to create this scenario. It is the Australian way to create humour about that, and we can now smile and talk about five secret ministries. But the fact of the matter is that our democracy was being actively undermined when the former Prime Minister was also the Minister for Health; the Minister for Finance; the minister for industry, science, energy and resources; the Minister for Home Affairs; and the Treasurer, unbeknownst to anyone in this House and unbeknownst to the Australian public.

I note with interest that, since the beginning of the 47th Parliament, the member for Cook has spoken twice in this chamber, where he still sits as a member of our representative democracy. He spoke on the death of the Queen and he spoke in defence of himself in a censure motion. I note with interest that, in the 47th Parliament, a lot of legislation has gone through this House. In the health portfolio, there have been five pieces of legislation; in Finance, eight; in Industry, Science and Resources, one; in Home Affairs, four; and, in Treasury, 11. The member for Cook has not risen from his seat to speak on any of those for which he had sworn himself in as a minister in the 46th Parliament. There's legislation before us now that comes under those portfolios. The member for Cook has not risen from his seat once to speak on any of those pieces of legislation.

It is a sad day for our democracy that we are having to take action to protect convention—because our democracy relies on convention, and our democracy is the most precious thing this country has. In the outer west of Melbourne, in the suburb of Point Cook, there are people from 82 different countries living in the Point Cook community of which I represent a small part, and, across the city of Wyndham, that figure stands—suburbs with 80-plus people coming from around the world. And our democracy is the most important thing they come to share in. The fact that in this place and in our time we had a prime minister who was prepared to undermine that democracy, to have himself sworn into ministries secretly, in a trashing of the conventions of this place, is a sad day for our democracy—a very sad day. It's a sad day for the Australian public. It's a sad day for me, when I'll be at a school in my electorate on Friday where children will want to talk to me about our great democracy and about my role in it as their member for Lalor. I won't dwell on this with those children, because I hope this will be the last time our country will see a prime minister prepared to trash conventions in this way.

The other irony that many in the chamber have spoken about is that, in all of those ministries, there was one action taken, and that was in June 2022, obviously, around PEP-11. I heard from colleagues who said that, through the last term, the thought of that project going ahead was something that distressed their communities, and people actively campaigned on it. So it is astonishing that it was in this one portfolio that former prime minister Morrison chose to act, and chose to act in such a way that it has now raised the issue again for those communities, so they are going through another term of stress about this project. Of course, this government will ensure that proper processes are followed to deal with that issue, as will the New South Wales government. I quote Minister King, who said that she assures Australians that any decision she takes as federal Minister for Resources will always be based on sound evidence and in accordance with the law. But the fact of the matter is we are dealing with something again because the former prime minister chose to act in a way that was a breach of our convention and now those communities face that again.

The passing of this legislation will fix something once, but I know all of us on this side are hoping that it is a salutary lesson to all parliamentarians about the respect that is due this place, the respect that is due to convention and the respect that is due to the Australian public to deal honestly and openly with them and to ensure that we go through the election processes and for the Australian public to have the assurance that what happens from that day forward for each government is conducted by people who respect our democracy and respect convention.

I will finish by mentioning the fact that it was not just those on this side who were upset, mortified and horrified when we found that this had been the case. There are three former Liberal prime ministers who have condemned this conduct. John Howard said:

I don't think he should have done that, I don't think there was any need to do it, and I wouldn't have.

Let's take those phrases one at a time. The justification is that there was a pandemic and a crisis. Former prime minister Howard said, 'I don't think there was any need to do it.' Former prime minister Howard is correct. Former prime minister Tony Abbott said:

I'm not going to defend what was done … it is just highly unconventional, highly unorthodox and shouldn't have happened.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said:

This is sinister stuff. This is a secret government.

He also said:

… this is one of the most appalling things I have ever heard of in our federal government. I mean, the idea that a prime minister would be sworn into other ministries, secretly, is incredible.

Those wrongs will be righted when this legislation passes the House and laws will be put into place to ensure that this sorry saga can't be repeated by any prime minister in Australia's future. But it is a sad day when we need to do this, because respect for convention should drive all parliamentarians elected to this place. Respect for our democracy and respect for the Australian people should be what drives us. None of us should be seeking to undermine those conventions. None of us should be seeking to game the system, as it were.

I will leave my comments there and hope that we can look forward. I know in this government we can look forward to a government that respects convention.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

PAYNE () (): I'm pleased to speak today on this Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022, which is part of the government's response to the inquiry led by former High Court justice the Hon. Virginia Bell AC into the sorry events under the former government that came to light in August last year where the former prime minister, the Member for Cook, had secretly sworn himself into several ministries—namely, Health; Finance; Industry, Science, Energy and Resources; Treasury; and Home Affairs—on top of his appointment to administer, of course, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

This was an unthinkable breach of trust of his own ministers, this parliament and, most importantly and most concerningly, of the Australian people, who were not aware of this. They did not know that the Prime Minister was also sworn in to administer these critically important portfolios. It is a sorry day for our democracy when we have to have this discussion. This parliament was right to censure the former prime minister, the member for Cook, earlier this year, because this should never have happened. This should never have happened because people who are elected to this place to represent their communities and, even more so, the people who are appointed to ministries and to be Prime Minister of this country should have at their heart a respect for democracy and for conventions of our system that enable ministers, governments and members to be held accountable.

To be honest, I don't take pleasure in giving a speech like this. I don't take pleasure in again looking at the behaviour of the former Prime Minister and what an absolute disgrace it was for the people of this country to have a prime minister who consistently showed disrespect for the conventions of this place and its operations, and a complete contempt for the accountability that was required of a prime minister—a consistent failure to take responsibility for just about anything. We saw that in his response to the censure motion. Still there was no apology, there was no acceptance that it was the wrong thing to do and that it should never have happened—in fact, perhaps, it was the media's fault for not asking specifically if he had sworn himself secretly into other ministries.

I'm proud that we are a government, and that we have a prime minister, that takes these conventions seriously and respects the role of this parliament, which is essentially about the representation of the people of Australia, each of their electorates, in this place. It should be incumbent on us that people have put their trust in us to represent them, their needs and the issues that concern them in this place. That is what it should very simply be about for each of us here. The idea that this could happen—the idea that a prime minister could breach the trust of his very own colleagues, the very people he appointed to be in charge of those critical portfolios, that he could do this behind their backs—and for that to be secret from the parliament and the public is, frankly, disgraceful and unthinkable.

This bill is an important step, an important part of our government's response to the Bell inquiry, to ensure this never happens again. Essentially this bill will mean that when the Governor-General has appointed someone to a portfolio or made a change to that or revoked one of those positions this will be made public as soon as possible. That is a very important thing, and I am very pleased to speak in support of this today. Essentially, if the parliament does not know that someone is responsible for a portfolio, how can it hold that person to account? It can't. And how can a minister perform their role with any kind of integrity when they don't know the Prime Minister is also sworn into that role and does not trust them, which is an important part of the conventions and the way the Westminster system operates. This was an incredible thing that happened, and a sad, sorry chapter of Australian history. I'm pleased that this bill marks a quick response to this. We don't ever want to see this happen again.

The Bell inquiry was not a political witch-hunt. It was about finding out how this was able to happen, who knew about it and why it was able to happen, and how we can put things in place so that it never happens again—which is what this bill is part of doing.

When these matters came to light in August, they were referred to the Solicitor-General, Dr Stephen Donaghue KC. It was clear from his advice:

… the principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined—

by the actions of the former government. As I say, a sad and sorry chapter of Australian history—one that will never happen again because we are putting in place additional checks and balances to ensure it can't.

It's little wonder that trust in our democracy is at all-time lows. That is very sad for most of us in this place who take democracy very seriously, for most of us in this place who are here because we believe in the power of democracy, of representation, of this parliament and of governments to make changes for the lives of Australians. That is why most people want to be in parliament and want to work for those changes on behalf of their constituents. The fact that a Prime Minister of this country had such disregard for those very principles was shocking. I know that this would never happen under our Prime Minister and our government, but we are looking to the future and are putting in place things that will prevent this ever happening again.

Some former prime ministers responded when they were asked how this could have happened. The reasoning was that we were in a crisis—the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an unprecedented time, but things have happened before that have meant that prime ministers and ministers have needed to be sworn in urgently. It can absolutely happen. It never required a Prime Minister to be secretly sworn in to other portfolios at the same time as being Prime Minister. That does not explain this at all. When asked about this, former prime minister John Howard said:

I don't think he should have done that. I don't think there was any need to do it, and I wouldn't have.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said:

I'm just not going to defend what was done. It is just highly unconventional, highly unorthodox and shouldn't have happened.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said:

This is sinister stuff. This is secret government. This is one of the most appalling things I've ever heard in our federal government. I mean, the idea that a Prime Minister would be sworn in to other ministries secretly is incredible.

We are pleased that the opposition support this change, because it is an important one. That is an important acknowledgement. As I said, I don't take great pleasure in raking over again the disregard of the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, for the office of Prime Minister and this parliament. I think I spent more than enough time last term talking about these issues. Frankly, as a member of this parliament and as an Australian, it shocked me that time and time again he just failed to see his responsibility for the issues that were facing Australians. This is an incredible expression of that. I'm very pleased that our government has introduced this bill and is taking steps to ensure that this parliament and the office of Prime Minister and ministries will continue to be accountable and that the Australian public will know when changes are made.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What unusual times we live in that this parliament has need for a bill such as the Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 to protect the sheer fabric of Australian democracy, all because of the actions of a former Prime Minister. It feels a bit sad really that these things should have to be placed into law like this after, it might be fair to say, the current laws had operated effectively until the election of the Morrison government.

We all accept that the pandemic was an unusual time. We have not seen anything like it in our lifetime—that is absolutely for sure. There were definitely calls for some extreme and perhaps unusual measures. It was a difficult time for many people, and absolutely there were challenges involved in the Australian people's trust of government. We needed to bring our country along with us for the journey and to explain to everyone why extreme measures were necessary and why the government was taking unusual steps to protect our broader community. Trust was at the core of this. It was essential to its success.

On the whole, Labor, who were in opposition for the height of the pandemic, supported the government in these measures. We worked constructively and were determined to put the health and wellbeing of Australia ahead of political interests. We did that. We were clear about why. We made constructive suggestions when they were necessary, but, on the whole, we didn't get in the way. Trust in government's ability to handle this crisis was paramount. The health and safety of the community were paramount. But we were there, as an opposition is meant to be in our democracy, to hold the government to account when it was necessary, to ask the hard questions of responsible ministers and to make sure that these extraordinary measures were in fact in the best interests of the Australian people.

But, as it turns out, it is pretty hard to hold responsible ministers to account when you don't know who they are, when you have been deceived by the guy in charge, who couldn't trust the ministers his own party appointed to do their jobs—who didn't even trust them enough to tell them that he had usurped their responsibilities and that he, in fact, was now the one in charge, a dictator extraordinaire. Democracy be damned! Accountability be damned! There was an ego to be stroked. There simply is no way to put this more delicately: the acts of the member for Cook were an unforgivable, reprehensible betrayal of the Australian public. Each and every person in this country who put their faith in government to steer them through one of the most difficult periods in recent history was deceived.

Our democracy is based on a cabinet, an Executive Council. The Westminster system of government does not have one single head of parliament, one single dictator or guy in charge. When we go to the polls, we don't vote for a single person. Our Constitution does not allow for power to be concentrated in the hands of one person. We vote for a team of trustworthy individuals, who stand up and tell our community what they stand for, what they will do and how they will do it. Our chamber, here, in this place, allows for a challenging of those ideas by other elected, trustworthy individuals, to get the truth—to allow for examination and scrutiny—so that that team of individuals can justify their decisions to the ones who ultimately hold the power: the voters.

But that system of government was undermined, torn apart and cast aside by the former Prime Minister, for reasons that—as Virginia Bell, AC, said, following her inquiry into these appointments—were 'not easy to understand' and were unnecessary. There was absolutely no need for it. It's one of many aspects of this whole saga that are simply flabbergasting: why do it? Ministers can be appointed in a matter of minutes. There was no threat. There was no gap that needed to be filled by a power-hungry prime minister. Not only that, but three of the appointments had absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic whatsoever; they were simply because the Prime Minister wanted the power, which he chose to exercise to overrule those who he helped put in charge. He wanted the power to say to them, when he felt the time was right, 'No, thanks; we'll do it my way,' blindsiding those who didn't even know he could do it—not to mention the fact that the departments didn't even know he was in charge; so how could they possibly be advising him? He was one guy, making the decisions he wanted, on a whim, on the fly, because he felt like it.

The seat of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast is no stranger to high-flying visits from Liberal ministers. We have hosted the former Prime Minister on many occasions. Those opposite have really had trouble letting go of the fact that they lost a formerly safe Liberal seat to a TAFE teacher, a farmer's daughter and—oh yes, worst of all—a member of the Labor Party. That last one really hurt—not just once, but twice. They are still licking their wounds on that one. So they regularly ride into town to remind people what they definitely aren't missing.

I can't help but reflect on the member for Cook's visit to Nowra in my electorate in April last year, as the election campaign kicked off. His words at the time seem a little ironic now, at best, and decidedly deceptive, now that we know what we know. The media wanted to know if Australians were tired of him, implying that that was why he might lose the election. Spoiler alert: he did—thanks in no small part to the very sensible people of Gilmore. But I digress. His answer I will quote: 'It's not about any individual. It's not about me.' That's interesting—not about any individual. But what we didn't know at the time was that this particular individual had actually been in charge of five portfolios on top of his prime ministerial responsibilities for the previous two years. He was in charge of the Health; Finance; Treasury; Home Affairs and Industry, Science, Energy and Resources portfolios, appointed not all at once but over a year, not all in a hurry but in a calculated way, in a secret way, but we had no idea—not even his own ministers did.

This wasn't his only visit to the seat of Gilmore during this whole sordid secret ministries affair. Like I said, he enjoyed popping by and often had very warm greetings, like his infamous visit to Cobargo, just down the road, in the wake of the bushfires or when he was greeted by ukulele singers in Hawaiian shirts. Our community are no fools when it comes to fly-in fly-out visits from a politician who, as he said, doesn't hold a hose, even if we didn't know that he did hold five secret ministries. Perhaps if during one of these visits we as members of the public and of this parliament had been aware that the member for Cook was not only Prime Minister but also the Minister for Health, we might have asked him what he was doing to resolve our GP crisis, which was spiralling out of control. We might have asked him why he, as the minister responsible, was not stepping in to reinstate bulk-billed video-telehealth psychiatry consultations that he, as the minister responsible, had seen ripped away from regional and rural Australia—a budget cut that surely the secret Minister for Health and secret Treasurer had a hand in and could fix with the stroke of his pen. We might have asked why he, as the minister responsible, had refused to deliver on his commitment to a radiation therapy centre for the Eurobodalla. We might have asked him what he, as the minister responsible, was doing to fix our neglected aged-care system. The secret minister for Finance and secret Treasurer in charge of the purse strings surely could have done something to fix this. The list goes on and on.

But we were denied the opportunity to quiz this secret minister on the decisions he ultimately held responsibility for because we were denied the knowledge that he didn't trust his own cabinet. We were denied the knowledge that he had no faith in our democratic system. We were denied the opportunity for full and frank scrutiny of the actions of people responsible for our public administration. He should be ashamed. Mr 'No Responsibility' doesn't hold a hose, doesn't have the answers. It's not about him sitting on a beach in Hawaii sipping cocktails while my South Coast burns or swanning about the Shoalhaven Heads Hotel trying to pass himself off as a local while deceiving everyone around him, even his own ministers—a blight on our democracy smashing the trust of every single voter, shaking the very fabric of our democracy.

The Albanese government will do everything it can to ensure that this can never happen again. A loophole that only a very shaky character would exploit will be closed with this bill. We will not allow this abuse of power to happen again. The Australian people are entitled to know who is administering our government departments. We are entitled to know who comprises our executive and what offices they hold. Local people in my electorate deserve transparent and accountable government, and only Labor will give that to them. Democracy is not a given. It is something we must fight to protect. We must preserve it at every opportunity and protect it from those who wish to undermine it. We don't want an Australian Donald Trump. We say no, we will not allow it.

The government has accepted all of Ms Bell's recommendations. We have listened to the advice of the Solicitor-General. The Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 requires the Official Secretary to the Governor-General to publicly publish advice that the Governor-General has appointed a minister of the Commonwealth because the Australian people deserve to know without delay who is in charge of our public institutions. I hope that this will go some way to restoring the trust of our community in government that was so horribly eroded by the actions of the former Liberal Prime Minister. That is on top of our commitment to establish a powerful, transparent and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission. I am proud to say that that bill is now law, and it wouldn't have happened without the Albanese government.

The Liberals will never want true accountability, true transparency. They have too much to hide, like political allocations of disaster recovery funding, political allocations of community infrastructure grants, secret ministries and dodgy dealings. That is what you get with the Liberals. Only Labor will set that straight and make sure that it can't happen, or that, if it does, there are consequences. We said we would establish a corruption watchdog with teeth, and we have. Transparency, integrity and accountability are at the heart of good governance. That is what the Albanese government is delivering. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.