Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. The reality is that this cycle of pageantry will continue until we end the culture.

Again I remind this place that no one of you—Liberal and Labor alike—is free of similar situations. We could have a very long conversation in this place about the New South Wales Labor Party. We could have a very long conversation in this place about the Tasmanian Liberal Party. We could have conversation after conversation about scandal after scandal that has pervaded both sides of politics for decades. That is not what the Australian people want. The Australian people want to see this circus end. They are sick to death of seeing their money misused in this way, and they are also sick to death of us using these moments to re-enact this pantomime.

As we talk about what it means for the National Party, what it means for Senator McKenzie and what the implications might be for the future of Barnaby Joyce in the other place, what is forgotten? What is forgotten is that the impact of this corruption on people ruins lives and harms communities. There are a number of projects that in the course of the past few weeks have come to light where disabled people applied to this government for modifications to their community, including their sporting clubs, to enable them to participate in community. Because they lived in safe National seats, seats that the coalition didn't think they needed to win at the next federal election, they were overlooked. There are communities now—I'm thinking particularly of Horsham—who were overlooked for desperately needed modifications and improvements to their community, because that seat was not in contention. That is a disgrace.

I know what it is like to not be able to access a local community pool. I know what it is like to look out at kids on sporting fields and know that you can't participate. It breaks your heart. To hear that situations like that have been continued because Morrison and his mates were getting together—the Prime Minister and the Nationals were getting together—and planning how to spend $250 million to win themselves an election to scrape back into power—is revolting. That is why the Australian people are revolted with this government, and that is why they are so urgently demanding an anticorruption commission to clean this up and make sure that it never happens again. I thank the chamber for its time.