Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian community deserves to have confidence in the Australian parliament, in the Australian ministry in particular. The community deserves to be able to have confidence in the highest standards of behaviour from its cabinet ministers. That is where the principle of ministerial responsibility comes from, not only in taking responsibility for government decisions but also in adhering to the code of conduct, which requires the highest standard of ethical behaviour. All that is being asked for here is a statement from Senator Sinodinos, to enable him to clear his name. If he believes he is innocent in this regard then that is appropriate. Ministers are clearly responsible for their own acts but they are also clearly responsible for their omissions, and it is important that the Australian people hear from Senator Sinodinos in this particular context—and hear more than the statement that he made earlier this year. It was a carefully crafted statement but there were several omissions.

It is also about consistency. I refer the Senate to what the now Prime Minister had to say when he was in opposition: before anybody was charged he had already made decisions about guilt and association. In referring to Craig Thomson at the time he said:

It really is unconscionable for the Labor Party and the Prime Minister to continue to rely on this person's vote. I think that the best thing Craig Thomson could now do would be for him to leave parliament and let someone else represent the people of Dobell. Look, it is a disgrace, it is an embarrassment to the Labor Party which spawned and nurtured and protected this person and it's a disgrace to public morality that this has happened,

The Greens have said from beginning to end that people are innocent until they are proven guilty, and we believe that it is time that Senator Sinodinos came in here and told the parliament exactly what has happened so that the parliament can make a judgement about that.

I would remind the coalition of some of the people who have resigned. Let us talk about Geoff Prosser, for example. He was minister for small business under former Prime Minister John Howard and in 1997 he resigned immediately because of allegations of improper business dealings. Go back even further than that and you had Mick Young, for example, who had to resign over not declaring a Paddington Bear to Customs in 1984. There have been many examples of ministerial responsibility. I could go through a whole list of them that I have got here. But the important thing is that if Senator Sinodinos has nothing to hide then he should come in here and make a full explanation to the parliament. That is all that is being asked at this point. Unlike the current Prime Minister, who immediately alleged guilt before there were any court proceedings, this is the Senate asking for an explanation on behalf of the Australian people.

That is why we need a national ICAC. That is why the Greens have argued for a very long time that we need a national integrity commissioner and that these matters should be dealt with nationally in the same way that they are dealt with in New South Wales by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It is important that we have it at the state level, but it is important that we have it at the national level. We have moved for it consistently and it has been rejected consistently by both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. It is time that we had a national commission against corruption so that we have the capacity for the community to know that there are appropriate levels of investigation when corruption is alleged.

It is no use for the coalition to pretend that there is no alleged corruption. That is clearly the allegation that is being made here. Frankly, all it does is undermine the parliament and every parliamentarian to see this revolving door of people leaving politics, going into business, ending up at the heights of their political party, organising political donations, going back into parliament and going back into business. This revolving door has been one of the reasons why people have lost confidence in politics and in parliamentarians. That is why we need to clean it up and that is why we need an independent commission against corruption and it is why Senator Sinodinos should come in here. (Time expired)