Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, I reported to the Senate that Mr Joyce had used his ministerial powers to appoint his mate and local political fixer, Councillor Col Murray, who is the Mayor of Tamworth, as the chair of Infrastructure Australia. Councillor Murray was disarmingly frank in the local paper. He said he asked Mr Joyce for a retirement job and that's what he got. We know what the National Party are: they are a men's shed for mates. They are all about retirement jobs for their mates. You have to give it to them: they don't hide it; they are open about it. The old Bunyip aristocracy, decayed and decrepit, knows what it stands for: itself. The Liberals stand for nothing. They hide their mendacity.

I heard Senator Stoker in here earlier today dissembling about their failure, sophistry after more than a thousand days, to deliver a federal integrity commission with real teeth. The real reason that Mr Morrison's failed to deliver a federal integrity commission with teeth is that half their cabinet are fugitives from justice. It is the most corrupt Commonwealth government in Australian history. They hide behind Mr Gaetjens, behind weak laws and impotent authorities, and they bully the Public Service. What Australians want to see is proper accountability. They want to see these ministers and the Prime Minister justifying their positions in the witness box. Thirty million dollars for a $3 million property, car park reports, sports rorts, regional rorts—the list goes on. We know they stand for nothing. We have seen their sitting schedule for next year. They won't sit, and we know they are running from justice and running from accountability.