Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The arrogance of this Prime Minister is dumbfounding. Mr Morrison went ahead and made the call himself knowing full well that, as Prime Minister, he was making a political call. This didn't happen in an authoritarian country; it happened here in Australia. This is the same thing that happens in Donald Trump's Washington. We have a Prime Minister who seems to think this conduct is okay. It's not. 'A bit of an innocent chat'—that's all it was, he said. How inappropriate. How many mates in the shire are picking up the phone to make a call about these serious matters? There's one: the Prime Minister. They say there's nothing to see here. The fact that the call was made is inappropriate. The fact that the call was made after a series of calls made to the police commissioner is inappropriate. The fact that these steps were made by our Prime Minister is inappropriate.

Those who thought that the Attorney-General, Christian Porter, might, as the first law officer in the nation, counsel restraint and proper process in this case will be unfortunately disappointed because it appears that he was actually an enabler. The first most important person for justice in this country enabled the Prime Minister to ring the New South Wales police commissioner—as Prime Minister—to find out details of a police investigation into one of his own ministers. Donald Trump would be proud. Apparently he's an enabler of a highly inappropriate intervention into the police investigation of a minister. But don't take my word for it; let's take the word of the senior judge and former head of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption, David Ipp. He called the call made by the Prime Minister 'not appropriate'. Mr Ipp told The Guardian this week:

You can't see that it's information that relates to matters of state interest. It can only relate to matters of party interest. If it relates to matters of party interest then he's using his influence as prime minister to try to obtain the information so that he can make the politically correct decision – that is, whether to keep Taylor or to fire him.

I don't think that's appropriate.

It's time this government and this Prime Minister show some integrity. The parliament and the Australian people are waiting. It's critically important that this government comes clean with every document at hand. This isn't where you just try to avoid your responsibility; this is where you take responsibility, and this government has failed to do that in the worst of circumstances, when the Prime Minister is involved.