David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. He is functioning under the most fundamental and basic conflict of interest.

What do we see here? The government embarks upon advice contrary to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on this important tender. The government has refused to disclose the names of the members of the evaluation board who are adjudicating the tender. So they are not acting in accord with the government department's advice and they are not telling anybody who is making the decision. But the leaks tell us that on two occasions that independent board said, 'Give the contract to Sky.'

Why aren't they doing that? The answer is: because Sky is owned by the 'evil empire'—News Corporation. So, the Prime Minister has rolled her sleeves up and dived in and said, 'We are not going to give this tender contract to the evil empire. They are the bad guys. They are saying that we're doing terrible things like the carbon tax and the mining tax.' This is what this government has brought to the table—no integrity. Indeed, the Solicitor-General's advice that we have heard from the minister says it all: this contract has the potential to be tainted and corrupted.

But it does not stop there. Look along the front bench in both chambers. 'Tainted' and 'corrupted' are the two glaring words that come to mind when you look at these people. Not many ministers can stand in this place and say, 'I personally, of my own ability, have burnt $30 million of taxpayers' money,' but he can. He will go down in history as one of the great spendthrift incompetents. (Time expired)