Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie gave evidence to an inquiry into sports rorts only after the Senate forced her to do so. The Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants had previously requested Senator McKenzie appear as a witness on no less than six occasions, but she'd declined every time. The coalition voted against a motion requiring Senator McKenzie's appearance at the inquiry.

The shadow Treasurer, Mr Taylor, as energy and emissions reduction minister, changed the law to keep secret electricity price hikes, ahead of the 2022 election, and deliberately concealed from the public and the energy market construction delays and hefty cost blowouts on the Snowy 2.0 project. Then environment minister Sussan Ley suppressed the state of the environment report ahead of the 2022 election because it revealed that the Liberals' and Nationals' environmental performance was even worse than feared.

And, of course, there's the gold standard of integrity and accountability: Barnaby Joyce! He has a long record of disgrace when it comes to these issues. He was appointed a special envoy for drought assistance and drought recovery by former prime minister Morrison, and he spent almost $1 million of taxpayers' money in nine months, spent less than three weeks in drought-affected communities and did not produce a report beyond a text message to the Prime Minister, which was, of course, kept secret.

So, when they come in here to talk about these issues, it is important that we remind people about their record in government. They have absolutely no credibility to stand on when they accuse this government. We have a proud record, in the two years we have been here, of restoring integrity and accountability. It is one that the Australian people understand. They still judge those opposite harshly. Those opposite have shown no remorse for their actions in government. We will absolutely remind the Australian people, at every opportunity we get, of their diabolical record. And the Australian people treated them accordingly.