Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I draw your attention to the failure of ministers to answer questions on notice Nos 2523 to 2543. I refer first to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. The question was in reference to meetings between the minister and representatives of the Exclusive Brethren and asks:

Has the Minister met with representatives of the Exclusive Brethren in the past 5 years: if so, in each case: (a) when was the meeting; (b) where was the meeting held; (c) who attended the meeting; and (d) what matters were discussed.

The question went to all ministers and ministers representing ministers in the Senate. I ask for an explanation, 65 days on, as to why those questions have not been answered by the Minister representing the Prime Minister and by the other ministers who were asked.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not have any additional information that I can give Senator Brown here and now, but I will seek further information for him and pass it on when I receive it.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the minister’s response.

It is unsatisfactory to not have an explanation in the Senate as to why there has been no answer to the series of questions which were asked on 4 October.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown, you have asked a question of the minister, he has given you an answer—that he does not have an answer—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I have moved to take note of that answer.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and he has given you an undertaking to find out and get back to you. Now, he cannot do any more than that. Are you continuing to take note of the answer?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am. I draw your attention to standing order 74, which provides for that. The matter is an important one. It has become all the more important that these questions be answered since, following the release of the book The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception by Mr Nicky Hager in New Zealand, a suppression order was issued by the then Leader of the Opposition in New Zealand to prevent that information—similar to the information being sought in the questions here—being put on the public record in that country. It is now history, only a week old, that the court order was to be lifted and the New Zealand leader of the National Party, the Leader of the Opposition there, resigned before that lifting occurred. What was found out, however, about the very serious intervention by the Exclusive Brethren in the democratic process in New Zealand was that every member of the conservative party in that country had been approached by the Exclusive Brethren and, in all cases except three, money was taken from the National Party members of the New Zealand parliament who were aspiring to government. That is, the colleagues of this Australian government across the Tasman were approached—

Alan Ferguson (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are not our colleagues. What a load of rubbish!

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a load of rubbish! They are another country.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government members here are now disowning their National colleagues across the ocean, the conservatives in New Zealand. They can do that, but I am prosecuting a case of parallelism between the Exclusive Brethren’s approach to politics in that country and what we have a right to believe may be the case here when we have ministers failing to answer questions which asked them very simply: have you met with the Exclusive Brethren; if so, who; if so, when; and, if so, what matters were discussed? Every minister in this place knows the rules. When a question like that is put on notice, there are 30 days in which to answer. Every minister knows that my office has approached the government to ask why this question has not been answered. I can only assume that there is some form of collectivism going on over there—a defensive collectivism which involves not answering these questions.

The fact is that this Senate has the right to get that answer. We are going away now for a break until February—

Ross Lightfoot (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Lightfoot interjecting—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government members opposite who are interjecting may wish that I was not pursuing this case. They are highly embarrassed and they are seeking cover because of their connections with the Exclusive Brethren. There is no doubt the Exclusive Brethren in this country are the stalking horse for conservative parties when it comes to election campaigning. What we do know is that in this country, in New Zealand, in the United States and elsewhere, this secretive sect—which refuses to allow its members to vote, which despises the democratic system—nevertheless has busied itself with pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into supporting the Hon. Prime Minister John Howard, his government and his counterparts elsewhere in the world.

We Greens say everybody has the right to take part in the democratic process. But let it be on the record. Let it not be covert. Let it not be hidden. Let it not be in back rooms, as happened in New Zealand. Let there not be secret meetings. Let it not be a case where material used to attack the Greens in Tasmania turns up in New Zealand with a slight word change and gloating by the Exclusive Brethren that this is an effective way to ‘fix’ the opponents of the National Party in New Zealand. Of course, what happened in New Zealand was that they were not only spotted; they were discovered. They were discovered because some members of the NZ National Party were so disgusted with what was going on there that they decided they wanted it on the public record. And it now is on the public record.

I ask: what is the relationship between the Prime Minister of this country and the Exclusive Brethren? He has admitted to meeting them, but he will not answer the questions about where, whom and when, and what deals were done. I think the Prime Minister owes it to this country and its democratic system to be honest in this matter. I think every minister in this place owes it to the country to be honest.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Milne interjecting—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister, as Senator Milne says, talks about fundamental values. But it is a breach of fundamental values when there are covert groups like the secretive, antidemocracy Exclusive Brethren meeting with the Prime Minister and he will not say why. What is the Hon. John Howard’s explanation for not wanting to say whom he met and why, or what matters were discussed with the Exclusive Brethren—whether or not it was the Elect Vessel himself, Bruce Hales, the multimillionaire who lives in the Prime Minister’s electorate and whom he has met; or was it Mr Hales’s brother or some other member of the Exclusive Brethren? Why can’t the Prime Minister say what was discussed? We know what was discussed in New Zealand: it was election campaigning to get at opponents and pour thousands of dollars into a pro-conservative campaign—while hiding that fact from the voters; being dishonest with the voters.

The questions about the last election in this country, about the extensive and hugely expensive advertising by the Exclusive Brethren on behalf of or in the interests of the Prime Minister and the government, have not been answered. It is one thing for the secretive Exclusive Brethren to cover up on that, but it is another thing for the Prime Minister and the ministers of this government to cover up on that. Why has not one minister of the government in this parliament been prepared to answer these very simple questions and has preferred to breach standing orders which say that those questions shall be answered within 30 days? What is the embarrassment that is being covered up here? What secretive dealings are being kept hidden on this side of the Tasman while we await emails to be leaked or some honest person to come out and say, ‘Here is the record.’ All we want is the record of the relationships between this sect and the government. Amongst other things it has given the Exclusive Brethren specific provisions under the Industrial Relations Act to ensure that workplaces controlled by the Exclusive Brethren are no-go zones for unions looking after the rights of workers—30 of them! That is what I call quid pro quo. What I do not know is what the ‘quo’ is—

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Or the quids.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member opposite talks about quids. If he has got information about quids, let him put it on the record. That might clear the air a little bit. There is a stench over this relationship between the Exclusive Brethren and senior members of this government—

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and that will only be cleared when there is honesty in this place and the record books are opened and the questions are answered. I tell the government opposite: if you think that this is the end of this matter, if you think that all leads have gone to a dead end, think again.

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about your electoral funding?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the member opposite, you ask me questions—I am asking the questions here today, and they are ducking for cover. They cannot wait to get out of this place. But I want them to know that this matter is far from finished—for this reason: you cannot have a fair and honest democracy; you cannot be open and honest with the people of Australia if you hide either in the Prime Minister’s office or in any other minister’s office records of meeting with a non-voting sect which opposes military training, which has a derogatory attitude to women and which bans children from going to university, for goodness sake, and expect that nobody will be concerned about it. These are matters that the government says it stands for: democracy and a fair go for everybody.

The Prime Minister has railed against groups that discriminate against women, but not this group. Never has he mentioned the discrimination, for example, in the workplace where no woman in the Exclusive Brethren sect can hold a position senior to any male in that workplace. What sort of attitude is that in 2006 in this country? What other group would escape Prime Ministerial odium if they banned thousands of children from a right to a university education in this country? This Prime Minister is silent on the matter. Quid pro quo? That is for him to answer.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about the schools?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Milne reminds me that there are thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money going into a schooling system that offers no tertiary education at the end of it, at least as far as universities are concerned. Tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars are going to the Exclusive Brethren schooling system, paid for by taxpayers who cannot get answers out of the government to simple questions through this parliamentary system.

This relationship is unhealthy. There is much more to it than meets the eye. We are on the last day here and I have waited for these answers. I am not going to delay the Senate anymore, but let me put this to the government very clearly: it is obliged under the standing orders of this parliament to answer these questions. It should answer them before we close this evening. If not, every member of the Australian public has the right to believe that this government is covering up.

Question agreed to.