Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I only have a couple of minutes left, so I won't go into too much detail. Senator Cameron has set out in detail the opposition's arguments in relation to Senator Cash. We remain completely unsatisfied by the answers that she has provided in numerous estimates hearings and in question time. Even before the Australian Federal Police began investigating her office—and we don't know whether it's one staff member, two staff members, her entire office, whether it might even be herself or the Prime Minister's office that are under investigation from the Federal Police—Senator Cash refused to answer very important questions which went to the nature of these leaks and who was involved.

On multiple occasions she has refused to answer whether any other staff member in her office knew about the leak of this police information prior to it occurring. She has refused to answer whether anyone in the Prime Minister's office knew about the leak, whether anyone in Minister Keenan's office, being the minister responsible for the Federal Police, knew about the leak prior to it occurring, or whether anyone else in any ministerial office knew about the leak. So, for all we know, it may well be that Minister Cash's entire office was in on this, or that the Prime Minister's office was in on this. But she has refused to answer questions and then has, conveniently, used the fact that her office is under investigation. I mean, that shows you how much trouble she's in. She has decided to say, 'I can't answer questions because my office is under investigation by the police', rather than tell us about what involvement her office had. There are so many more questions for this minister to answer. This is a massive cover-up. We are not going to let it go.

Question agreed to.