Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, Federal Court Justice White ruled that the national cabinet is not a committee of the federal cabinet and is not protected by cabinet in confidence. The judgement was scathing of the Commonwealth. The decision will allow the Senate select committee on the government's COVID-19 response to insist on the handing over of all documents that ministers and bureaucrats have refused to hand over on the basis of cabinet confidentiality.

But the question is: how did we get into this position? Responsibility does not just rest with the Prime Minister. The then Attorney-General, Christian Porter, is also responsible. How did Mr Porter get this so wrong? How was this unlawful construct initiated and then operated?

Ironically, it isn't the first time that Mr Porter has put politics before the role of first law officer for the Commonwealth. A couple of years ago, he censored an Auditor-General's report being tabled in the parliament. I also had to go to the AAT to get that incompetent decision overturned. I remind the chamber of three other decisions where he's demonstrated poor judgement: allowing the DPP to prosecute Bernard Collaery and Witness K for revealing an abhorrent operation conducted by ASIS against East Timor; David McBride, who blew the whistle on some of the most appalling conduct of some of our soldiers in Afghanistan; and, of course, Richard Boyle, a hero who blew the whistle on abuse of power in the tax office.

The new Attorney-General must not play the politics that Christian Porter did. The A-G's office should be above that. A good start would be to review these prosecutions. As for the foreshadowed prospect of an appeal—and I'm glad the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General is sitting here—it would be improper to initiate an appeal on this.