Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The parliament has been waiting weeks for straight answers to simple questions about the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction's botched hit job on the Lord Mayor of Sydney, something that has become known as the 'doctored documents affair'. This morning the minister once again demonstrated his complete contempt for his ministerial obligation to be accountable to this parliament and, through the parliament, the Australian people by refusing to comply with an order for the production of documents about his role in this increasingly grubby scandal. In question time this afternoon, instead of being upfront, the government chose once again to run a protection racket for the soon-to-be-disgraced and former minister. We know that the Prime Minister is loose with the truth, so I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised that his government is totally incapable of being honest about Minister Taylor and this whole sordid affair.

But the details of this fiasco will not be kept hidden forever. In a report published online in recent hours, two journalists from The Australian, Alice Workman and Greg Brown, have reportedly exposed the identity of the individual responsible for sourcing fraudulent figures about the City of Sydney's travel expenditure. Ms Workman and Mr Brown have published that it was in fact Minister Taylor's senior adviser, Mr Josh Manuatu, who sourced the dodgy figures that his disgraced boss relied on to launch an attack against the Lord Mayor of Sydney. Well, senators, is this sounding a little bit familiar to anyone here?

First of all, we have a Liberal government minister shopping around forged reports containing dodgy figures to try to make a cheap political point. That's certainly not the first time this type of thing has happened under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. Senators might recall that in 2014 the office of the then employment minister, Senator Abetz, attempted to 'massage' jobs figures in an official government report to suit the Liberal Party's political agenda. What a shock!

Given Minister Taylor refuses to answer basic questions about the doctored documents affair, perhaps Senator Abetz might like to shed some light on how this type of thing continues to occur in coalition ministerial offices. Was there any link between the dodgy figures that former Minister Abetz's office tried to massage into existence and dodgy figures that emerged from Minister Taylor's office? What could that link possibly be? Who within former Minister Abetz's office was responsible for this questionable behaviour? Senators will be shocked to learn that it was none other than this same staffer, Josh Manuatu, as revealed in an article published by The Guardian on 24 March 2014 entitled 'Eric Abetz denies report his office was urged to "scale up" jobs figures'. What a shocking coincidence!

What other similarities might there be between this latest ministerial scandal and the many previous ministerial scandals during the sorry life of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government? Well, some of you might recall that Alice Workman has helped to uncover the truth about Minister Taylor's office's role in the doctored documents affair, just like how she helped to uncover the truth about another minister's office—Senator Cash's office—leaking an AFP raid to journalists. You might recall Senator Cash misled the Senate five times when she indignantly insisted that her office played no role in leaking the raid to the media, but she was forced to finally admit the truth when Ms Workman revealed the minister's office was in fact the true source of the leaks. Well, Minister Taylor has gone one step further. He has misled the parliament six times, claiming the doctored documents were sourced from the City of Sydney's website. But we know that's not true, because if it were true the minister would have complied with the Senate's order for the production of documents and provided proof by 12.45 pm today.

So why did Minister Taylor say that the document was drawn from the City of Sydney website? And where did Mr Manuatu obtain the dodgy figures that appeared in the forged version of the City of Sydney report? What did he tell Minister Taylor about the origin of those figures? Has he told Minister Taylor that he sourced these dodgy figures? Why has it taken journalists to expose Mr Manuatu's role in this disgraceful affair? Why hasn't Minister Taylor volunteered this information on one of the many occasions that he has been asked about the doctored documents affair in the House of Representatives? How long has Mr Taylor known that his own staffer, Mr Manuatu, was the source of these dodgy figures? How long has he then chosen to sit on this information rather than tell parliament the truth? And why won't Minister Taylor finally do the right thing: take responsibility for his disgraceful conduct and the behaviour of his own taxpayer funded office and stand down? This minister must stop making excuses, he must stop the obfuscation, he must stop blaming others and he must stand aside. The usual routine of blaming it on a staffer, like we saw from Minister Cash, and then parachuting them into a plum job with the Liberal Party just won't cut it.

But make no mistake: Josh Manuatu is no bit player in the loony right wing of the Liberal Party. He is the president of the federal Young Liberals, a member of the federal executive of the Liberal Party and the finance chairman of the ACT Liberal Party. Indeed, there are rumours that Mr Manuatu is seeking high office as the director of the ACT Liberal Party, with the blessing of ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja.

It is very disappointing that Senator Seselja has still not learned to be careful about the company that he keeps. During his brief, and otherwise unremarkable, tenure as leader of the Canberra Liberals, Senator Seselja made some very ill-advised choices as to the company he kept. Under his leadership, Liberal Party staffers and party members were revealed to be operating a fake Facebook page purporting to be the official page of then ACT Deputy Chief Minister Katy Gallagher. This was a vile and offensive Facebook page riddled with distasteful content that falsely attributed views to Senator Gallagher that were offensive both to her and her family. And during his otherwise unremarkable stint as ACT opposition leader, Senator Seselja was also accused of allowing the resources of his taxpayer funded office to be used as a slush fund by the Liberal Party.

I welcome Senator Abetz's arrival in the chamber, and perhaps he can shed some light on the activities of his former staffer, Josh Manuatu. It is very disappointing that Senator Seselja has not learned from his past mistakes, and I call on Senator Seselja to assure the Senate that he will play no role in helping the now notorious Josh Manuatu become the director of the ACT Liberal Party, as another attempt to look after a mate who's got himself caught up in a scandal to save his minister.

In summary: today's new information provides Minister Taylor with an opportunity. And we say to him: 'Don't follow in the footsteps of Senator Cash and just blame your staff. It's time to show a shred of dignity, do the right thing and resign.' If he won't, the Prime Minister must finally show an ounce of leadership and sack this disgraced minister. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.