Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Families and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and the Public Service (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) and Senators Collins and Farrell today relating to the Prime Minister (Mr Morrison).

In the late noughties, Tourism Australia's 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign was in full flight. It may not have brought many new tourists to our country, but it did bring Lara Bingle, now Worthington, onto screens and social pages across Australia. But there was another career that rose from the spectacular marketing failure, and that was the career of the then managing director of Tourism Australia, Mr Scott Morrison. It would be a few years, of course, before Mr Morrison would rise to be the PM. He would have to win preselection first. For those who have forgotten, in 2007, it was actually Michael Towke who was preselected for the safe Liberal seat of Cook. That preselection contest attracted a large array of candidates, including Paul Fletcher and Mr Scott Morrison. Mr Towke easily won the preselection. He beat Mr Morrison 82 votes to eight. But, in the weeks that followed the preselection, a number of news articles questioned the legitimacy of this preselection, which ultimately saw him disendorsed. This led to Mr Morrison being preselected, and Mr Towke commenced defamation proceedings and obtained a substantial settlement. But, by that time, of course, from a political perspective, the damage was done. Mr Morrison went on to be a minister and a shadow minister before emerging from the chaos of this year as Prime Minister. An expose in this weekend's Saturday Paper has brought the conduct of Mr Morrison at Tourism Australia back into question. Why, after a decade, should Australians care? Because the events, as detailed in that expose and in the contemporaneous Auditor-General's report, raise serious questions about competence, about governance and about probity. They are raised in relation to a man that no single Australian knew could be the Prime Minister when they voted in the election in 2016.

Prime Minister Morrison has steadfastly refused to answer the question of why he is the leader instead of former Prime Minister Turnbull. But, in the absence of any explanation, voters are entitled to turn to his past to try and understand who he really is and what he brings to the job. There are serious questions of competence raised by the events, because, all the indications in the material that is available to us are that Mr Morrison struggled to perform. In answering these questions, Senator Cormann tried to point to performance as a reason for Mr Morrison's ascendancy. But, if we look back, Michelle Grattan reported at the time: 'Sources close to Tourism Australia board told the Herald it was a unanimous decision to force Mr Morrison out. There was no dissent whatsoever. Nobody was happy. We wish there had been a better outcome, but the board was absolutely unanimous.' The Australian, likewise, reported the relevant minister as saying: 'We've moved on it. It was without question the right decision by the board.' That's what Ms Bailey said of Mr Morrison's departure. In The Australian, they went on to report, 'She said she was seeking a replacement for Mr Morrison who would be more of a team player, capable of working closely with state bodies, industry and the government.' Is this the man that the Liberals want as Prime Minister—someone who couldn't work with state bodies, industry and government?

There are also serious questions about governance and probity. The Auditor-General's report suggests there were serial irregularities in the way that contracts were awarded by Tourism Australia. For instance, the Auditor-General found that while Prime Minister Morrison was its managing director, Tourism Australia requested that tenderers commence work on contracts worth $184 million before contracts were even executed and that Tourism Australia's risk mitigation was ineffective. These questions around competence, probity and governance are serious questions and they require answers from the government.