Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you must have woken up on Tuesday morning, looked yourself in the face and said: 'I was right yesterday. I took the advice of all the scientists. I took the advice of these very highly qualified people I appointed. I was right.' But suddenly, for what you are trying to pass off as good fisheries management, you had a change of mind. I repeat: forget the challenge of Mr Rudd to Ms Gillard. But, Minister, you as a minister of the Crown and of our nation must be able to explain what happened overnight. You say in your answer to my question that you have full confidence in the board of the commission. Why don't you take their advice? With respect to you, Minister, and with respect to me as a former fisheries minister, we do not know much. We try, but we are not the experts.

You have appointed the best qualified scientists in the world, I would go so far as to say, to your commission, to give you advice. They gave you advice. On Monday you accepted it. Suddenly on Tuesday you did not. So please, Minister, do not treat me as fool—well, treat me as a fool; I accept that, but please do not treat the rest of your colleagues as fools. Please do not treat this chamber like that. There has to be a reason you ignored the advice of your expert.

I also read Mr Egan's letter to the ombudsman, and that disturbs me. This is the same ombudsman, I understand, who wrote questions at estimates for the Greens political party. I think it is the same ombudsman. Certainly Mr Egan thought that in his letter to the ombudsman. I think Mr Egan, former Labor Treasurer of New South Wales, was indicating that the ombudsman had sort of shown his colours. I do not know what the ombudsman's politics are, but, clearly, writing questions for the Greens at estimates gives an indication of where his political allegiances might lie.

The allegation that Mr Egan raised in his letter to the ombudsman is a very serious one. I would like, Minister, for you to tell us whether you and your government still have confidence in an ombudsman who would make a decision—as I understand Mr Egan's letter says—without even bothering to lift up the phone and ask the people who are being accused whether they have a view on it. He was not going to necessarily take their advice, but you would think that, if you go to an ombudsman and say 'Ian Macdonald is corrupt', natural justice would mean that the first thing the ombudsman would do is ring Ian Macdonald and say—sorry, I am using a bad analogy here; there is an Ian Macdonald who was a politician who is alleged to have been corrupt. He is a nice fellow. I used to know the other Ian Macdonald. He was also a fisheries minister. Perhaps my analogy, talking about an Ian Macdonald who is corrupt, is wrong, because that is the allegation. He was a Labor minister, you might remember; yet another Labor minister who is in trouble with corruption allegations.

Let me use a different scenario. If someone complains to the ombudsman that Ian Macdonald is drawing his salary but not coming to parliament, the first thing the ombudsman would do is ring me and say, 'Senator, I have had a complaint that you are taking your pay but you do not come to parliament.' There are one or two members on the other side—a member from up my way in North Queensland—who rarely go to parliament. The first thing the ombudsman would do is ring up and say: 'Senator Macdonald, it has been alleged that you do not attend parliament. Could you give me your side of the story? I am not going to say I believe you. But what do you say?' But the ombudsman in this instance apparently did not bother to even pick up the phone; he just took the complaint of the Greens political party at face value and, with his record in writing questions, you could understand that.

But my question is twofold. You have answered my previous one; you said nothing happened Monday night. I am sorry, but nobody believes you about that. I know your leader, Ms Gillard, is prone to telling lies. One day she promised there would be no carbon tax and a week later she introduced it. I know that is a bit of a thing in the Labor Party, but surely you cannot expect us to believe that on Monday night nothing happened to make you change your mind. I am challenging your answer and asking you to, please, give us a truthful answer. know your leader does not understand truthfulness and does not require ministers to be honest, but please, Minister: I have known you for a while. You are an old Boonah schoolboy, so you must be good. Please give us the truth. What happened Monday night that caused you to change your mind?

The other question is: does the government still have confidence in the Ombudsman who dealt with this issue in such a cavalier way that lacks any semblance of natural justice?