Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the breaching of the standards required of ministers by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the breaching of the standards required of ministers by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr President, the behaviour and actions of the Deputy Prime Minister have brought the office of the Deputy Prime Minister into disrepute. This happens at a time when trust in politics is at an all-time low, when people have had a gutful of the behaviour of people in this place, and yet here we see a Prime Minister where questions are raised around due process, conflict of interest and the inappropriate use of taxpayer funds. What the Deputy Prime Minister chooses to do in his own time is his own business. We do note that this is a very difficult time for his family and indeed his new partner. But the reality now remains that there are serious questions about the conduct of the Deputy Prime Minister.

We know that arrangements have been made by the Deputy Prime Minister to place his new partner into highly paid positions within the National Party's parliamentary staff. We know the Prime Minister's own ministerial code of conduct states very, very clearly that partners shouldn't be offered positions within other ministerial offices. Of course, part of this hinges on whether the person in question was the Deputy Prime Minister's partner. Well, forgive me, but to try and avoid responsibility for fulfilling the ministerial code on the basis of whether she was technically his partner because he was in an ongoing relationship with his wife does not pass the common sense test. There is a serious question around whether he breached those standards.

Today we learnt from reports that it appears that the Deputy Prime Minister solicited a gift of free rental accommodation worth in the order of $12,000, again appearing to be a clear breach of the Prime Minister's statement. Worse still, when asked about this he told the parliament today that the person in question, his friend, approached him, offering to do him a favour. We know, however, from when he was asked about this several days ago, that it was Barnaby Joyce that approached Greg Maguire—the person in question, the so-called friend—to solicit some help in finding accommodation. It does appear that today the Deputy Prime Minister has misled the parliament.

We further learnt that this individual, who clearly stands to benefit from decisions that have been made by Barnaby Joyce, may have already been the beneficiary of decisions by the Deputy Prime Minister, in that some of the accommodation that he owns may have already benefited from a government contract. That is a clear conflict of interest if indeed that is the case.

We also learnt today that there are further revelations that the Deputy Prime Minister was paid by the Nationals to run for the recent by-election in New England. This is remarkable. The Deputy Prime Minister of the country, who is on almost $500,000, is paid a salary by the National Party to conduct a by-election campaign. It is utterly remarkable that the Nationals would think it was appropriate to cover the salary of somebody who was so incompetent. He was found to be a dual citizen. He denied it initially, sat on it and continued to be a minister. And what do the National Party do? They reward him for his incompetence.

We should also remember that the reason we are in the mess we are in with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is because Deputy Prime Minister Joyce has been so incompetent. This is a man whose hypocrisy knows no bounds. He took time during the debate around marriage equality to lecture us on family values and how important it was to ensure that we respect those values—of course, knowing all the while that he wasn't living up to them.

But that is not the reason for this suspension here today. The reason for this suspension is that there are serious questions about due process, about the potential for conflict of interest and, of course, about the appropriate use of taxpayer funds. All of this could be resolved, every last question right now could be resolved, if we had a national anti-corruption body. These are precisely the sorts of allegations that should be referred to a national anti-corruption body because there are serious questions now for the Deputy Prime Minister to answer.

One of the Deputy Prime Minister's primary functions is to serve as Prime Minister when the Prime Minister is on leave. We now learn that Deputy Prime Minister will be missing in action next week, and that honour will be handed over to Senator Cormann. That's simply not good enough. If he's not up to the job to be Prime Minister, he needs to go, and the Nationals need to sack him. (Time expired)