Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Transparency, integrity and accountability. This is the Prime Minister of Australia, the man who went to the last election stating that if he was elected by the Australian people an Albanese-led government would be the hallmark of transparency, integrity and accountability. Yet today what we see is that Mr Albanese has fallen over at the very first hurdle.

In providing an explanation on behalf of the Prime Minister of Australia, what did we get from the minister representing the Prime Minister? Well, actually nothing—nothing but excuses and blame. You see, what the minister and the Prime Minister clearly fail to remember is that you are now in government. You set the standards by which you wanted the Australian people and this parliament to judge you: transparency, integrity and accountability. Yet on each one of those standards, with 117 questions overdue—and it's not like you had a short time in which to provide the answers; they are overdue now after over 30 days—you have failed in every regard.

As the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate stated, when those in government were on the other side of the chamber, they were very demanding when it came to questions being answered on time. Yet now that they are in government, they don't hold themselves to that same standard of accountability. In June last year, just over 12 months ago, what did now Minister Watt say in relation to the failure to provide answers to questions on notice in a timely fashion? He said this: 'We deserve answers and transparency.' He went even further and said:

It is not negotiable—and it should not be negotiable—for the Prime Minister to comply with the standing orders and properly answer these questions.

Of course, the Prime Minister is now his Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is Prime Minister Albanese. According to what now Minister Watt said at the time, Mr Albanese has failed. Mr Albanese has decided that transparency is negotiable, even though it was not negotiable when they were in opposition and we were in government. Then, of course, Senator Marielle Smith said on 15 October 2019:

I am relatively new to this place, but it doesn't really seem like an unreasonable request to me that these questions are answered within 30 days.

I agree. It is not an unreasonable request, in particular when you are the now Prime Minister of this country and you have gone to an election on the basis of integrity, on the basis of transparency and on the basis of accountability.

The Prime Minister should stand true to his words and ensure that at all times he complies with the standards that he himself set. The Prime Minister made a huge fanfare when he announced what he said was his new code of conduct for ministers. What did he say in the foreword to the code of conduct signed personally by Anthony Albanese, the new Prime Minister?

Australians deserve good government.

The Albanese Government is committed to integrity, honesty and accountability and Ministers in my Government (including Assistant Ministers) will observe standards of probity, governance and behaviour worthy of the Australian people.

Yet when it comes to ensuring that they comply with the standing orders in this place, the Australian Senate, all of that goes out the window and the now Prime Minister thinks, 'Well, I won't personally observe the standards of probity, governance and behaviour that are worthy of the Australian people.'

In making all the fanfare that he did in relation to his code of conduct, at clause 5, Accountability, he says this:

Ministers are required to provide an honest and comprehensive account of their exercise of public office, and of the activities of the agencies within their portfolios, in response to any reasonable and bona fide enquiry by a member of the Parliament or a Parliamentary Committee.

This is the code of conduct which Mr Albanese made great fanfare about when he announced it. This was going to be the code of conduct to end all codes of conduct, and yet what we've had is the Prime Minister himself—and they've only been in government for over 120 days—already failing the code of conduct that he himself signed off on. But what is worse, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate has stated, the Prime Minister has been more than happy in the past to have several press conferences about the ministerial arrangements of the previous government, and yet when it comes to taking responsibility for his own government and answering questions, very serious questions, he is nowhere to be seen.

The questions on notice, and there are 117 that are outstanding, which have been asked of this government—and particularly in this case were asked of the Prime Minister of Australia—are very important. In the case of the questions on notice that are outstanding for me, they seek to inquire into what discussions Labor ministers and the Prime Minister's office had with a number of union stakeholders.