Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take part in the debate in response to questions by Senator Cameron and Senator Wong. We are having this debate because today in the court we heard David De Garis, the former media adviser to Senator Michaelia Cash, give evidence and admit that reputational impact against Mr Shorten was part of his motivation for giving media a tip ahead of the raids at the AWU headquarters in Melbourne and Sydney in October 2017. We are here today asking questions of Minister Cash. We are here today having this debate because Minister Cash is refusing to answer questions. She is refusing to answer questions such as, for example: how does this align with her obligation under the Statement of Ministerial Standards to act through the lawful and disinterested exercise of the statutory and other powers available to her office? We are here today because the best that Minister Cormann can give us is a statement that the government maintains confidence in all its ministers. We are not hearing from Minister Cash or Minister Cormann direct answers on the circumstances around these AWU raids and the role that the minister and her staff may have played.

This is part of the ongoing campaign of fear and smear run by the government. This government is so devoid of vision, plans, reforms and a look at what Australia might look like over the next five years that all it can talk about is fear and smear—whipping up fear and scaring people, instead of giving them a vision for the future. For example, we heard the Prime Minister this week at the National Press Club. Here's what he didn't talk about. He didn't talk about schools. He didn't talk about hospitals. He didn't talk about Medicare. He didn't talk about child care. He didn't talk about the NBN. He didn't talk about climate change. He just tried to scare people with a dark vision of the future. That's all he has to offer.

I'll tell you what else he didn't talk about. He didn't talk about the fact that wages growth is the slowest on record. He didn't talk about the fact that company profits are growing at six times the rate of wages. He did not talk about the record-high gross debt. He didn't talk about the fact that 1.8 million Australians are looking for work or are looking for more work. He certainly did not talk about the fact that childcare costs are up 24 per cent, that power bills are up 15 per cent and that private healthcare costs are up 30 per cent. All we have from the government, instead of talking about, as Senator Duniam so eloquently puts it, things that matter to Australians, like schools, hospitals, Medicare, child care, the NBN and climate change, all the Prime Minister can offer us is whipping up of fear.

Wasn't he whipping up fear earlier today in his media conference? Wasn't he laying out the welcome mat for the people smugglers? Wasn't he just tempting those boats to start again? The Prime Minister of this country went out there and announced to the world that he is reopening a hotel for people smugglers on Christmas Island. Understand this: there is one person in Australia who wants the boats to start again and that is the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. He is out there tempting them, goading them. He is hoping that those boats come again, because he knows there is nothing that passed the parliament today that would restart the boats. That is the fact, and the Prime Minister knows it. But, instead of dealing with those facts, the Prime Minister has gone out on a campaign of fear and a campaign of smear, trying to whip up hysteria, trying to fearmonger and hoping the boats start again. He knows that it is turnbacks, offshore processing and regional processing that has stopped the boats and that nothing that passed the parliament today will restart the boats. What will do it is his rhetoric and the invitation of the opening up of a hotel on Christmas Island. That's what the Prime Minister is doing, and he is tempting those boats to start again. We see from Minister Cash fear and smear against Labor leader Bill Shorten. We see from this government fear and smear about the dark days ahead. But we do not see a positive vision for the future of this country.

Question agreed to.