Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we want to see here in this Senate and what all Australians need to feel is confidence that we have leadership—that is, all of those things that provide stability, security, safety, hope for the future and, in particular, transparency and accountability when things go wrong. Things do go wrong. They do go wrong. Whether it's in a personal scenario or a professional scenario, things do go wrong. But here in the Senate, when things go wrong, as uncomfortable as it may be, we all have a responsibility to ask the questions.

We have a responsibility to focus on process. We have a responsibility to keep asking the questions that forever remain hidden from being answered. That is our job as senators here, that is our job as opposition senators and that is our job as crossbench senators, to keep transparency and accountability to those in power. The people in power are our coalition colleagues, both here in the Senate and in the House. Like it or dislike it, the reality is that that power has to remain checked.

Something terribly horrible went wrong, right here, in this parliament—after hours, when a young girl had no support, when only now has she taken the courage to speak up. So we keep asking the questions about the process. We keep asking the questions that need to be asked in order to, hopefully, come out on the other side with a better place of safety for all people who work—not only in this building but for all Australians—to see that intolerable acts against others should never be accepted. Sometimes it is hard to ask those questions, but they are never coming from a personal point of wanting to damage someone. They are coming from a sense of responsibility, of our roles as senators, to keep those in power accountable, just as we ourselves are accountable to our constituents in the roles that we conduct back in our own jurisdictions and here in this place.

There is no doubting the sensitivities involved on every level here. But the obfuscation from the Prime Minister in answering important questions, both in the House and from ministers in here, raise legitimate concerns that we will continue to raise. We are unafraid and unashamed to keep asking these questions. You may wish to pose a picture that portrays us as heartless, but that is not the case. You know as much as we do that the discomfort you feel has to be laid bare, because all Australians expect answers and we've not seen answers in this past fortnight.

Labor will continue to pursue this, in the interests of justice and fairness, to eventually reach a position of suitability, safety, for all Australians, whether they work in Parliament House, whether they work in businesses across the country, whether they work in their homes. If it is up to senators here, on this side, to ask the hard questions, let me reassure you, we will continue to do so.

Question agreed to.