Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and Administration (Senator Minchin) to questions without notice asked by Senators McEwen and Wong today relating to a function for the Liberal Party held at Kirribilli House and political donations.

In Australia, the current Prime Minister, Mr Howard, has two official residences: Kirribilli House, on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, and the Lodge, here in Canberra. We have heard a number of interjections from senators, particularly those who were here in the period prior to 1996, about the level of policy content in our questions. I recall that a lot of the questions from a lot of the senators who were here prior to 1996 were about dog kennels, Thai teak tables and expenditure at the Lodge. We have two official residences in this country for Prime Minister Howard: Kirribilli House and the Lodge in Canberra. It is interesting that one of the first decisions Mr Howard took on taking office as Prime Minister 11 long years ago was to establish a second official residence at Kirribilli House. One residence was not good enough for Mr Howard; he had to have two—one here in Canberra and one in Sydney. One residence was good enough for the former Prime Minister, Mr Keating—and we used to get constant questions in this chamber about the alleged dog kennel and the Thai teak table. But for Prime Minister Howard, it was necessary to have two residences.

Over the last 11 years, Senator Ray, Senator Faulkner and others have highlighted the significant additional cost to the Australian taxpayer of the Prime Minister maintaining two official residences. No-one complains about the Prime Minister having one official residence. What was good enough for Paul Keating? For that matter, what was good enough for Sir Robert Menzies? I recall that the Lodge was good enough for them. But one of the first decisions Prime Minister Howard took was to introduce a second residence—Kirribilli House. As I have mentioned, my colleagues Senator Ray and Senator Faulkner have, over the last 11 years, highlighted the additional costs involved in having two official residences for the Prime Minister—the cost of alcohol, the cost of capital upgrades, the cost of security, the cost of food, the cost of curtains and the like.

As I say, no-one complains about one official residence—but two! And recent events were exposed at estimates as a consequence of the Liberal Party national conference. No-one opposes the Liberal Party national conference running business observer functions. I think this function cost about $8,000 per head. But it was a shambles. Former Senator Baume, now Mr Baume, used to say a lot in here about piggeries in relation to the former Prime Minister, Mr Keating. Mr Baume drew attention to the total shambles of the Liberal Party conference. Apparently it was an organisational disaster. Business observers could not understand how the supposed party of business could be so disorganised; it was a shambles. None other than former Senator Baume had to write and complain in order to get a ticket to the function—presumably the function at Kirribilli House.