Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For those who are here in the chamber, you've come to Canberra on a day when the House isn't sitting and you've come into the Senate, and I'm sure that you're going to go away from here today making a judgement about the chaos and dysfunction that are at the heart of this government. I got the thumbs up from the gentleman there in the front row of the gallery because he is a representative of the true Australians out there who are sick and tired of the game-playing by this government that's going on.

We have seen a failure to answer questions in this chamber today. We had a minister standing up and refusing to show up at Senate estimates. There have been attempts to convene to get her to answer questions about what she knew about what was going on in her portfolio. She's refused to show up there. She is coming here and making up her own questions that she wants to answer.

But we've got Senator Fifield refusing to answer questions here in the chamber. For those who were here in question time and those who were listening, all they would've heard from Senator Fifield were these sorts of mealy-mouthed comments: 'I covered this in my statement this morning.' If he's so sure about the statement that he made this morning, why didn't he repeat it in question time when Australians were listening? It was because he doesn't care enough; he doesn't have the respect for the Senate chamber to stand up and repeat that clear answer. If it's so clear and it was so perfect that he's going to refer to it here, why didn't he tell the chamber when it was filled with Australian representatives? Why didn't he have the respect to repeat in question time what he said? He answered the second question that he was asked, mealy-mouthed again, with, 'Oh, I made a contribution.' Then he was asked about exactly what he knew.

Let me go back to this question to Minister Fifield: did the minister or his office discuss concerns about former Senator Parry's eligibility with any of his ministerial colleagues or their offices? Who did you talk to? That's what the question was: did you talk to anybody?

Do you know what he said? He said, 'There are particular details about which I have no knowledge.' We were asking about what he did himself. 'I have no knowledge about myself.' That is what Senator Fifield is actually asking us to believe in his response to questions today.

This government is in decay, it's in crisis and it continues to disrespect the rules of the Senate. We've had today—with a new President coming into the chamber and the handling of Senator Parry's resignation—a classic revelation of what goes on with the Turnbull government. I want to put on the record that Senator Parry, who was sitting in that chair as the President, was a thoroughly decent man, and everybody's comments this morning indicate that he took the role very seriously. But, when it came to the moment he thought he might not be a citizen, he had a bit of a chat with Minister Fifield, who can't recall the details. We don't know who he spoke to. He's trying to get us to believe that he didn't speak to anybody, but Michelle Grattan has it in the paper that he spoke to quite a few people. The story is out. Despite the fact that the Australian people are paying very close attention to this, this government continues to stand here and misrepresent what is going on. And it expects the Australian people—represented in physical presence by you here today—to believe the nonsense that we saw at question time today.

We know that Senator Fifield's answers were appalling. We followed up with some questions to Senator Brandis:

Were any members of the Senate government leadership team made aware of concerns about the former senator's eligibility before Monday, 30 October?

We got this long list of process from the senator about who is in the leadership team and who is not in the leadership team, just to give us the benefit of his wisdom. Then he finally summed it up with, 'I have no reason to believe any one of them'—any of the six people in the leadership team—'knew anything prior to Monday 30 October.' 'No reason to believe' is not a clear, concise and believable answer in this context. Senator Farrell has referred to Michelle Grattan's reporting. It tells us that Minister Fifield knew that Senator Parry was in doubt. Minister Fifield had conversations with a range of other people, and we have this chaotic, dysfunctional government in here continuing to misrepresent that reality. I want to go to one of the great comments we heard in question time today: 'This was a candid and thorough response from the minister.' That is the same as saying this government is functional and truthful. (Time expired)