Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Assistant Minister for Health (Senator Nash) to questions without notice asked by Senators Faulkner, Wong and McLucas today relating to circumstances surrounding the removal of a health star rating website.

What we saw today in question time was a minister desperately ducking and weaving and hiding from providing any proper information to this chamber about things she should have known and things in relation to which she has previously misled the chamber. She was asked some very straightforward questions, which ministers should be able to answer, about the appointment of her chief of staff, about whether or not she was aware of his shareholding, about when statements of interest were provided and, in particular, in a question from Senator Faulkner, she was asked about a particular public servant who did not do what the chief of staff obviously asked and then somehow, and completely independently, has been moved from that position within six days.

I want to focus on one particular point that arose in question time today in relation to the provision of the statement of private interests. If you look at the ministerial staff statement of private interests you will see that there is a requirement in it to include shareholdings of oneself, one's spouse and one's dependants. In relation to the shareholding of the chief of staff to the minister responsible for food regulation, the question is whether or not, at the time he was appointed, he had disclosed this shareholding. This is the shareholding that was subsequently disclosed on Tuesday night late in the Senate when the minister scurried in to quickly try and correct the record, some six hours after she had misled the Senate. That has not been answered, as to when that statement of interest was submitted and whether it disclosed his shareholding. There is an even more important point out of question time on this issue—that is, the involvement of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's office.

Let us be very clear: as Senator Abetz would recall, what this government has told the parliament, in Senate estimates, and the Australian people is that all staff appointments are the Prime Minister's staffing appointments. It is the Prime Minister who ultimately determines if someone is appointed. This is not my assertion; this is very clearly an assertion made by the government in the last Senate estimates. Interestingly today, when the Prime Minister was asked about the appointment of the minister's chief of staff, did he stand up and defend him?

Did he stand up and defend the minister? Did he say, as the minister has consistently bleated over and over again today, 'No conflict of interest'? No, he did not. Do you know what he said? 'It's been answered in the Senate. Go and look there.' It is not the most fulsome support I have seen from a prime minister. More importantly in many ways, today when Senator Nash was attempting to answer, or not answer, questions from me about the involvement of the Prime Minister and his office, she said: 'All information around my chief of staff was given to the Prime Minister's office in accordance with the appropriate timing.' I think that is called dropping the Prime Minister's office in it.

What is very interesting is that the minister was prepared to say, 'Well, I actually did give it to them. I did give it to the Prime Minister's office.' But the Prime Minister himself was not prepared to back his minister in question time today in the House of Representatives. What is very clear through all of this is that a government that promised to restore accountability and transparency—the Prime Minister's commitment—has been found this week to have misled the Australian people through this Senate. This week it has been found to be refusing to comply with its own standards. This government and this minister have refused to comply with their own statement for ministers and their staff. (Time expired)