Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is no doubt that we are all here to serve with the highest degree of integrity. Despite what we have seen over the last hour, in many respects in this chamber there is a lot of goodwill. I just want to make this point today, being White Ribbon Day: I am personally disappointed that we have brought this MPI debate to the chamber, and it needs to be understood that subject matters for matters of public importance debates are determined by those opposite, not by the government. It is a very constructive and important part of the parliamentary process. But it is disappointing that, on a day like today, we could not have had a national debate on how we work together to combat family violence. I ask the Leader of the Opposition whether he could consider this topic for tomorrow's MPI, because it is very important. It is clear what is happening today—this is a political point-scoring exercise and nothing more. It would also be fabulous to see that we can use this debate to take forward the big issues of our nation. I put that proposal up for consideration.

I want to reflect on the member for Scullin's contribution. I am really disappointed that he has made such a slur on the Prime Minister. In the short time that Malcolm Turnbull has been the Prime Minister, he has implemented some very important policy reforms and made some very important announcements. When it comes to integrity, the one thing that I really hate about politics is this wild exaggeration, to the point where there is very little truth in what a member of parliament says. I think it is one of the reasons why Australians do not respect members of parliament as much as they should or they used to. We just heard from the member for Scullin a quite untruthful representation of the Prime Minister. In the first few weeks that Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister he announced the $100 million women's safety package. He announced the NDIS rollout for Victoria and New South Wales. We have seen a comprehensive review of competition law being announced. There is a nation-changing innovation statement on its way. It is this sort of politics that Australians hate, and I would really like to see us move away from that.

I reflect on the member for Aston's contribution about individual MPs and the integrity of our respective parties and the decisions we make. In my contribution today I want to reflect on the unfortunate way in which the Labor Party will, in some respects, say and do almost anything. It does upset me. I was a journalist and I do like to think that the facts play a pretty good role in the story that you tell. I reflect on what happened in my local electorate and how the Labor Party ran its campaign when the former member for Corangamite, Darren Cheeseman, made claims that we were going to blow up the cliffs of the Great Ocean Road and build a four-lane freight highway—it was so ridiculous, so pathetic in its untruth. It completely discredited Labor. Those were the sorts of tactics that we were seeing locally. We continue to see this with the current local candidate, who is making utterly false claims in relation to the NBN. On 21 July, she put out a statement saying:

They are NOT rolling out NBN to thousands of premises. They are rolling NBN out to a few isolated nodes, and most people won’t be able to afford the money to connect.

This is the sort of politics that people hate. What the Labor candidate for Corangamite said is a complete untruth. The NBN is being rolled out to everyone at no charge in terms of receiving the infrastructure. At the end of the day those sorts of lies do none of us any good; they do not increase our standing. So, when it comes to integrity, I would like to see the Labor Party start to look at what they are doing in my patch and to tell the truth.

I reflect on the East West Link—one of the worst decisions we have ever seen in Victoria, a decision that cost Victorians nearly $1 billion. Premier Andrews said he would only cancel the contract because it was not valid. That did not prove to be the case. Very disappointingly, in the face of the most appalling conduct by the Victorian Labor government, on a project that federal Labor had previously supported, Bill Shorten did not have the courage to stand up with integrity and say, 'Daniel Andrews, you've got it wrong.'

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