Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Madam Deputy President. Again I repeat: I am absolutely on point about a government using public interest immunity to hide the misbehaviour of ministers. That's exactly what we're seeing here this morning. Nothing could be clearer, and nothing could be clearer about how much of a puppet Senator Hanson is to this government than her behaviour this morning—absolutely terrible.

This government has got a terrible record on funding for courts and essential services. Not only did it ignore the call in the KPMG report for an emergency injection of $5 million in funding, but the Abbott government cut $30 million in funding from the Family Court in the first year. This is a government that cut funding for the Family Court and increased funding for the ABCC. It increased funding for Nigel Hadgkiss and his cronies in the ABCC to attack working people in this country.

As I've said, Minister Cash, who is in here defending the government's position this morning, is the worst of them all in the coalition: misleading this parliament on five occasions, a ministerial office in chaos and revolving doors in her office. People are moving out of her office as soon as they come under any scrutiny. As soon as they come under any scrutiny, off they go to get a job working for the Hotels Association, assisted by the minister or by the government in Western Australia. All the links are there. We know how this mob works: if you're in trouble, throw your adviser under the bus. Off he goes to get a job with the Hotels Association, and then you try to hide from the misbehaviour that you've carried out. The web of influence that this minister has created in so-called independent organisations is a disgrace. It's a disgrace for democracy and it's a disgrace for the coalition—an absolute disgrace. Minister Cash comes in here and she attacks refugees, attacks working people and uses question time to simply make assertions that are not true. Then, when she is in trouble, she wants to hide behind public interest immunity to avoid scrutiny, failing to comply with orders to produce answers to the estimates questions. She just treats the Senate with absolute disdain.

It's not just Senator Cash that treats the Senate with disdain; the coalition treats the Senate with disdain. I'd have thought any Independent worth their salt, who wants to make sure a government is held to account, wouldn't be in here defending the government, wouldn't be in here defending Senator Cash, as Senator Hanson has done on every occasion she got the opportunity to this morning. What an absolute disgrace for One Nation to be in here trying to defend Senator Cash, trying to defend this rabble of a government. Pauline Hanson's One Nation should just actually sign up to the coalition—because you're just part of the coalition. You're just part of the coalition.

Senator Cash is a minister who has failed to deal with the fundamental part of her job, and that was to make sure that working people in this country were not ripped off. She just didn't ever go there. It was always an attack on the unions, using independent bodies to attack the union movement: put her mates, put her allies, put her plants into independent organisations and then use them to attack the trade union movement and use them to attack the Leader of the Opposition. That's what this was all about.

As I've said, Putin would be proud of what Minister Cash has done. I know Putin is one of Senator Hanson's heroes. She thinks he's great. Well, nobody else in the world seems to think he's great. When you're out here defending Senator Cash, I know why you're doing it—because you like what Putin is doing in Russia, and you think that this is worth defending here. What a disgrace Pauline Hanson's One Nation is. What a disgrace Pauline Hanson is.