Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

More’s the pity if I have to withdraw that, but I will. Your stunt today would not pass the kitchen table test, would not pass the pub test and would not pass the barbecue test because the Australian public will see straight through your cheap stunt. You have had two goes at it. You have had the motion to take note of answers and you have had this urgency motion. You have repeated yourself. You made no sense in your first speech and you made even less sense in your last speech.

Senator Evans, you know that this should have gone to the Privileges Committee. You know full well that your colleagues on both sides of the political fence treat that Privileges Committee very seriously. You know full well—and if you do not, you should—that there has never been a matter, according to my understanding, come out of that Privileges Committee where there has not been unanimous agreement of the committee. That committee is sitting in judgment on its colleagues; the very judgment you were talking about in your speech. You should hang your head in shame that you have totally bastardised the process of this Senate today by this cheap political stunt. You have bastardised the process that has stood the test of time. It is a process that has required our colleagues to sit in judgment on each other with those very matters that you have referred to as the absolute primary matters for their consideration. For you to debase the process the way you have today is to your eternal shame. You have been shown up as engaging in a cheap political stunt.

I turn now to your comments in relation to the Prime Minister in the earlier debate. The pub test should make it quite clear to you that the general community has expectations that have been met by the Prime Minister. I will read again the Prime Minister’s comments from The 7.30 Report. Just for interest’s sake, I notice that there is no-one else from the Labor Party in the chamber seven minutes into this speech. I will go through again what the Prime Minister said. He said:

As a Senator, he has to disclose these transactions. I reminded him of that obligation when I appointed him as a minister and I wrote to him reminding him of his disclosure obligations. He broke those obligations. I didn’t know of that breach until a few days ago when he owned up, and that is why he’s out.

In relation to a question from Kerry O’Brien, ‘But doesn’t that go to the heart of the probity of your government, that one of your ministers appears to have lied to you about something really quite serious?’ the Prime Minister replied, ‘That would go to the heart of the probity of the government if I, having found out about this a couple of days ago, had done nothing about it. The fact that he went quickly for a clear breach of simple rules that every senator or member of his or her own volition should observe is an indication I do take the probity of my government very seriously, and I resent suggestions to the contrary.’