Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition has moved a motion in the Senate because apparently they weren't happy with two of the answers to questions on notice that they received. The hypocrisy of this particular proposition is extraordinary.

The first question was a question that Senator Hume asked about comments attributed to the finance minister in the Canberra Times in relation to what was called a productivity efficiency component. Those comments are completely consistent with a responsible government cleaning up $1 trillion worth of debt left by a decade of Liberal neglect and dysfunction. In answer, the minister quite rightly said:

In relation to the sustainability of the Budget, the Albanese Labor Government inherited a Budget disaster from the previous Liberal government, featuring a trillion dollars in Liberal Party debt, growing inflation, a cost of living crisis and an ugly mess of waste, rackets and rorts that defined the legacy of the wasted decade under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, a situation with which Senator Hume will be intimately familiar as the Senator was a senior member of the previous Liberal government and a Minister in an economic portfolio.

In addition to that, there is a question here from Senator Paterson that is the subject of this motion. It is about, of all things, the lobbyist register. I remind the Senate—and Senator Farrell says here correctly—that the lobbyist register is a creation of this government. The last time there was a lobbyist register in place, it was a creation of the Rudd and Gillard governments. It was abolished by the previous government. The lobbyist register before that was abolished by the Howard government. These guys have no shame when it comes to the activities of lobbyists and the proper regulation of lobbying here. It's an extraordinary proposition to ask the Senate to get stuck into the government about lobbyist registries and lobbyist regulation that you have abolished every time you've gone anywhere near the government benches.

Why is that? As Senator Farrell's pointed out in his answer—I understand that Senator Paterson, Senator Birmingham and others over there don't like the answer—every time you've got near the government benches you've dispensed with lobbying regulation. And why? Because regulation and clean government are anathema to these characters over there. You only have to look, as Senator Farrell pointed out, at the activities of the member for Fadden. But Senator Farrell could have gone further. If Senator Scarr doesn't like it, he could reflect on the activities of the current member for Hume over the course of the previous government. When he had a problem on his property, a bit of native grass that he wanted to get rid of, what did he do? He walked the little red carpet up to the minister's office and pleaded his case after he'd got the Roundup out and knocked over the native grass to make an enormous personal profit for his company. Remember Jam Land? We all remember it.