Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, you start as you intend to leave. Of course, Australians know that when we say 'misleading' the parliament, it's a euphemism for the word 'lying'. And we know that the 'Taylor-made' scandal isn't the minister's first rodeo because the boy who cried, 'Naomi Wolf!' has already been embroiled in three other scandals this year.

He has routinely failed to disclose his financial interests. In relation to the latest matter—just what we uncovered this week—serious questions have been raised over an $80 million water purchase to a company of which he used to be a director that's owned by a Cayman Islands based company he helped to set up. And he failed to declare shares in a company being investigated for poisoning critically endangered grasslands. And just like the Prime Minister did, on that occasion he rang his mate to try and fix it. Remember? He dropped Mr Frydenberg in it. But he refuses to be accountable, and this Prime Minister won't hold him accountable. In fact, Mr Morrison misled the parliament himself four times trying to defend Angus Taylor. It appears that the normal rules that apply to everyone else don't apply if you're in 'Club ScoMo'.

Paragraph 7.1 of the Ministerial Standards provides for a minister who is subject to an official investigation to be stood aside by the Prime Minister. Senator Sinodinos stood aside from cabinet when he was called as a witness before the New South Wales commission against corruption. It was the right thing to do. Other ministers have done the right thing and stood aside when allegations of improper conduct have been made, but this Prime Minister refuses to enforce these ministerial standards. No matter how low Mr Taylor goes, no matter how many mistakes or misleads he makes, no matter how many times he is not up-front—and, dare I say, uses false information—Mr Morrison refuses to stand him aside. Instead the Prime Minister himself misleads the House while defending his minister—four times. What this demonstrates is that honesty and integrity are not a priority for Mr Morrison or this government. There is one standard for Mr Morrison and his mates and another standard for every other Australian. If Mr Morrison and this government had a shred of integrity, a shred of decency, they would release the documents that the Senate has required, apologise to the Australian people and stand aside the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction.

The many scandals in which Mr Taylor has been involved have tainted the Treasurer, tainted the Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations and tainted the Prime Minister. Mr Taylor stubbornly refused to correct the record on the origin of this doctored document. Who is he covering for and why has Mr Morrison not directed him to come clean? Why is this Prime Minister so stubborn and so arrogant that he believes that he and Mr Taylor and other ministers should not be accountable to the parliament? Or is there some other reason why he keeps protecting Mr Taylor even as the political and ethical costs keep mounting?

We on this side of the chamber will continue to hold this government to account. We will continue to shine a light on this grubby conduct because Australians deserve honesty, decency and transparency in government, not the scandals and trickery of those opposite.