John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have just heard the two worst speeches from Senator Eggleston and Senator Johnston, not even attempting to defend Senator Ian Campbell and his ministerial malpractice over the orange-bellied parrot. The orange-bellied parrot affair is not about environmental protection; it is about politics. The orange-bellied parrot affair is not about a threatened bird species; it is about McMillan, a threatened Liberal Party seat in Victoria. In pursuit of that political outcome that Senator Ian Campbell, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, sought, what have we seen? We have seen the environmental assessment processes of this country debauched by Senator Campbell. We have seen the minister reject his departmental advice, the professional advice, the expert advice, the scientific advice, that he received. We have seen Minister Campbell shopping around for new and different advices in the vain hope that he would eventually find one that suited his political objectives on this issue. We have seen a huge amount of public moneys wasted on unnecessary bureaucratic and legal wrangling. And of course, finally, we have seen the utter and complete humiliation of Senator Campbell.

Senator Campbell, as environment minister of this country, is charged with very heavy responsibilities. He is charged with the protection of Australia’s environment and he is charged with ensuring that the use of our natural resources occurs in accordance with strict environmental guidelines. Senator Campbell, as we have heard, is the minister who likes the soft option. He likes grandstanding at the International Whaling Commission to stop the slaughter of whales. He is right about that; every single Australian agrees with him about that. It takes no political courage to stand up on that issue. But it does take political courage and political integrity to balance competing issues in marginal electorates, do what is best for your country and behave with ministerial propriety and integrity. You don’t just do what is best for your party; you have other responsibilities. Minister Campbell has failed that test comprehensively.

It also takes political courage as an environment minister to stand up on tough issues like greenhouse and climate change—courage that Senator Campbell has never demonstrated. He has been missing in action on those most crucial global issues. There are no more important issues facing the world than those. What do we get from this minister traditionally? Temper tantrums, immature behaviour, puerile rants and raves, and political attacks. That is the modus operandi of Senator Campbell, and it is not good enough.

What we have seen from Senator Campbell today is a yellow-bellied performance about the orange-bellied parrot. In any other government in the Western world this sort of performance would end with either a resignation or a sacking. We know the chances of Senator Campbell doing the proper and honourable thing here and the chances of Mr Howard, the Prime Minister, doing the proper and honourable thing in relation to this issue are as remote as the chance of one of Senator Campbell’s parrots in 1,000 years hitting a rotor blade at Bald Hills wind farm. That is the chance of them doing the right thing. But Senator Campbell should resign. This is a resigning offence and he should go.

Question agreed to.