Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If I could hear myself over the interjections, Mr Acting Deputy President, it would help. But they do not put me off—as you know, I was a childcare worker for many years; I am used to three-year-olds screaming and yelling—so they can continue and I will start with my speech proper.

I want to talk today about a tradition in the Westminster parliaments—one that goes back many decades—and that is that ministers are held to very high standards by the government, the parliament and the community. They are held to high standards because they occupy positions with a great deal of power and responsibility. The penalty for ministers failing to meet those standards is sacking or resignation.

They are the standards that were applied, eventually, when Senator Sinodinos stood aside pending investigations by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption after it was revealed that he had served concurrently as Treasurer of the New South Wales Liberal Party and chairman of Australian Water Holdings. The same standards were applied when Mr Briggs resigned over allegations of inappropriate behaviour involving a female public servant during an official visit to Hong Kong, and when Mr Brough stood aside pending outcomes of a police investigation into his behaviour in relation to former speaker Peter Slipper and James Ashby, and when it was revealed that Mr Robert had shares in a mining company of a generous Liberal donor, and when the Department of Finance commenced investigations into Ms Ley's use of travel expenses for—