Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

What is that responsibility to the Senate? It is, as the Prime Minister's Code of Conduct for Ministers says at section 4.1, to 'take all reasonable steps to ensure that they do not mislead the public or the parliament'. Senator Gallagher says that she has always acted ethically, but an ethical approach would be, firstly, to not mislead. An ethical approach would be, secondly, to own up if you have misled, to apologise if you have misled and to appropriately correct the record if you have misled. Senator Gallagher has failed on each and every one of those tests.

These are serious issues, and there are associated issues that go to questions of how the tragedy of an alleged sexual assault was politicised, but those matters are not before us today. It is the simple issue of misleading the Senate. No matter the views of senators on other matters, this Senate should not stand for being misled. It should send a message clearly by censuring Senator Gallagher.