George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Bob Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Fierravanti-Wells today relating to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

We had a remarkable occurrence in the Senate at the beginning of question time when Senator Fierravanti-Wells asked about the United Nations Convention on Corruption and its domestic application within Australia, in particular to state and territory governments. The question was asked of a minister who was the Premier of New South Wales, the second largest state government in Australia.

The second supplementary question, might I remind you, was this:

Does the minister feel compromised in advocating Australia's support for the convention in the international arena given that, at the time Australia became a signatory to the convention, he, as Premier of New South Wales, presided over a government riven by corruption, as revealed by the Eddie Obeid scandal?

What was remarkable was Senator Bob Carr's answer to that question. It was a one-word answer, a monosyllabic answer: no. Senator Carr did not want to go anywhere near this issue. So petrified was Senator Carr of going anywhere near this issue that, in answering Senator Fierravanti-Wells' question, he actually conceded the premise. He did not even trouble to dispute Senator Fierravanti-Wells's assertion in her question that he, as Premier of New South Wales, had presided over a government riven by corruption.

I am bound to say that when we drafted this question we thought that the government might take objection to it—that they might take objection to the assertion implicit in the question. But they let it go—