Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, those on the other side are trying to defend the indefensible. Senator Faulkner came in here and was perplexed, no less, about today's matter of public importance. Obviously he has not been reading the papers lately. Indeed, Senator Singh—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—might I suggest that you concentrate and read the daily newspapers rather than some obscure journal about whatever, because today's daily newspapers offer the government some very good advice. I take you to the Canberra Times, not necessarily a newspaper that has always been—how should I say it?—right of centre. It is a newspaper that I would equate more with the left wing of politics, but there it is in the commentary in today's Canberra Times, which says:

Voters are not mugs.

Mr Peake said:

Expecting them to believe that an unnamed person used Craig Thomson's credit card and phone and drivers licence for escorts—and escaped without penalty—is reaching too far into fiction.

He goes on to say:

She—

referring to the Prime Minister—

closed down debate in Parliament—

as she did yesterday. What level of prime ministerial standard is that—shutting down parliament, shutting down the debate, as she did yesterday? She undermines the argument that there is nothing to worry about. He continues:

Incredibly, Anthony Albanese says Parliament has no time at all in this week's four-day sitting to allow the Member for Dobell to tell his story.

Let us have a look at the Herald Sun. Its headline reads that the pressure over the Thomson scandal is threatening the PM's credibility. That seems to me to be directly relevant in relation to ministerial responsibility. Mr Hudson makes this comment:

... Labor looks hapless as this issue eats away at its credibility.

This is about a government that have a major integrity problem. They are so desperate to hang onto power. Of course the master, Graham Richardson, told them to do 'whatever it takes'. It seems to me that they ought to be listening to Graham Richardson at this point in time because I think he has read the political tea leaves a lot better than those opposite have. Mr Hudson writes:

The NSW ALP took the extraordinary step of helping to pay legal bills for Thomson.

We know that they are absolutely paranoid that he should become bankrupt because that would disqualify him and make him ineligible to sit in parliament. The figures of $40,000, $90,000 and $150,000 have been bandied about. It could be a lot more. It could be $200,000; it could be a quarter of a million dollars. But nobody from the New South Wales Labor Party is prepared to tell us the conditions of that bailout and how much the actual figure was. Hard-earned union money—there it is being used in this matter. Mr Hudson also writes:

Abbott is right when he says an MP who, at best, is so careless with his own credit card statements should not be in charge of quizzing the Reserve Bank governor about the nation's finances.

That is backing up what the Leader of the Opposition is saying in relation to Mr Thomson. This is about integrity. Every day we open the newspapers and there is another allegation; there is another issue about misappropriation of money. Today it is about something else. It is there every day. This is going to keep going because it is very, very clear that the member for Dobell has a lot to answer for.

Indeed, today's Courier Mail editorial says: 'Hard questions need answers in Thomson affair'. We have asked the member for Dobell to explain himself. Yesterday, in the other place, the Manager of Opposition Business sought leave to move a motion that would require the member for Dobell to attend in the House and give a personal explanation. The manager outlined the various issues so that the member for Dobell could reassure the House about these matters in a personal explanation—a please explain to the Australian public. What happened? It was shut down. There was not enough time to talk about these important issues. One of them said, 'Oh no, the member for Dobell has to explain himself,' so the Prime Minister gets asked a question about whether she has full confidence in the member for Dobell.

While we are on the subject, will any of the retrenched workers at BlueScope Steel receive a $90,000 gift from the New South Wales ALP? I am sure that they have a view on it, which I will hear next time I have a meeting in the mall in Wollongong in relation to that. I am sure they are all very happy about it! They are losing their jobs down in the Illawarra while their MPs and their union bosses are squandering money in brothels and all sorts of other things. What is the Prime Minister's response? Questions of personal explanation are for the individual parliamentarians involved. Well, we gave the opportunity to the member for Dobell to give a personal explanation and what did they do? They shut down the debate. So here is the Prime Minister saying, 'Oh no, he can make his own personal explanation', and when we try to give him the opportunity to give that explanation they shut down the debate. Isn't that smart? Give him the opportunity, but there is no desire to give a personal explanation because he has a hell of a lot to hide. That is what this is all about. This goes to the very core of the integrity of this government.

The member for Goldstein yesterday made a very pertinent comment to which my colleague Senator Ronaldson referred. He said:

The support being given to the member for Dobell is sickening. Look at the evidence that comes out daily. Look at what we saw today from Fairfax—that he has lied; that he is a thief. Yet the Prime Minister stands up here daily and supports it.

Day in, day out this Prime Minister is going into the chamber and she is standing up for him. Day in, day out we are seeing more allegations.

Senator Ronaldson talked about Fair Work Australia. Here is Minister Evans today in question time telling us it is inappropriate for him to interfere, yet that is precisely what he was doing when Senator Ronaldson was trying to ask very important questions which today still remain unanswered because this minister interrupted and shut down that debate. If he does not have anything to hide, the member for Dobell should go right into that House now and explain to the Australian public. More importantly, he needs to explain to the people of Dobell.

I am patron senator for Dobell. And I can tell you there were hundreds of people at the Mingara Recreation Club a couple of weeks ago to witness the disgraceful behaviour of the member for Dobell, so I can tell you what the people of Dobell think of their local member—that is, he is a disgrace. The sooner the people of Dobell get the opportunity to have a by-election and to elect another person to represent them, the better off they are going to be and the better off the people of Australia are going to be to get rid of this government which is rotten to the core.