Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

"and, in respect of the Ministerial Suitability Commission of Inquiry Bill 2021, the bill be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 10 August 2021."

What we saw yesterday was only the fifth time in this chamber's history that a government has blocked a bill being read a first time. What we're now seeing is a government attempting to block a private member's bill going to inquiry. This is an absolute debasement of process. This is a government throwing its weight around to protect one of its own. Let's call this for what it is: this is a protection racket for Minister Christian Porter because this government doesn't want to face an inquiry into whether he raped a woman decades ago. That's what's under debate here. Rather than respect process and rather than have the Prime Minister do the decent thing and actually undertake an inquiry himself or have cause for an inquiry to be undertaken, they just want to silence the voices of so many people who are demanding justice, while trying to pretend that everything is fine and that this isn't a problem at all. Well, this is not going to fly. How long are you going to put up a protection racket for Minister Porter and keep this alleged rapist in the cabinet? How long? We won't stop moving to introduce this bill and we won't stop moving to try to send it to inquiry.

I want to go into the allegations, but I want to make an important point of principle: private members are able to introduce private member's bills. We are also able to refer bills to inquiry. It is a virtual matter of course. It is highly unprecedented for a government to stand in the way of a private member's bill to be read a first time and even more unusual to stand in the way of a private member's bill going to inquiry. This should send chills down the spines of everyone who's interested in having a government that's accountable and open to scrutiny. This is a slide towards a dictatorship in aid of protecting an alleged rapist in the cabinet. You could not make this stuff up.

Yesterday we had Jo Dyer, who was a friend of Kate, the woman who alleged that Christian Porter raped her many decades ago, in the chamber, and she was incredulous that this government would stoop to such lengths as to stop this issue being talked about. She made the point to the media that, in fact, this issue won't stop being talked about. You might try to silence us, but we are not going anywhere. Ninety-thousand people signed a petition calling for an inquiry into whether Minister Porter should remain a minister, and there are many more thousands of people that would like to have confidence in the organs of government but cannot, and there are many more women who have been raped or sexually assaulted—in fact, 90 per cent of them have not gone to the police. Why? Because they fear they won't be believed. Your actions today and yesterday send a message that women will not be believed when we speak out about assaults that we have experienced, and that is an absolute abomination. The motives you have for sending that message, to protect one of your own, to protect the boys club—it is an absolutely horrific occurrence. I am almost lost for words that you would sink to these lows rather than simply let justice run its course and have the Prime Minister do the right thing and inquire into whether or not his ministers are fit to remain ministers. That is the point of the Prime Minister's Statement of Ministerial Standards. That is the point of that document. If there is no point to that document, just shred it—like you have your credibility.

If the government can block me introducing a bill and can block me sending a bill to inquiry, I am hopeful that the crossbench will see that it can do the very same to them. Perhaps it's veterans suicide. Perhaps it's something that One Nation want to progress—although they seem to have quite ready access to this government. The principle is: the government of the day should not be able to stop senators introducing private senators' bills and having those bills sent to inquiry. I expected you would have simply shrunk the time for the inquiry, blocked any public hearings from going ahead and done it all on the papers; I expected that level of nefariousness. I didn't expect you to just block this bill from going to inquiry at all. I will ask the researchers to work out how often this has happened. This is a slide into a dictatorship by this government, who are allergic to transparency and are desperate to protect an alleged rapist in their own cabinet. They are sending a message to every woman in this nation who has been raped or assaulted that they don't believe her.