Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Standing here this afternoon I think what an important discussion this must be because we are debating some very core issues at the present time. When we have someone that is prepared to stand up—and we have had a few here this afternoon—and attack someone’s character, we want to think very carefully because I am reminded of the biblical quote, ‘Let he who has no sin cast the first stone.’ I think to myself that no-one in this place could stand up and cast the first stone. I am appalled on a number of fronts. For a start, I am appalled that a few weeks out from an election a private dinner with discussions that were in camera two years ago all of a sudden is the most important thing in Canberra. It really does say something about journalism in Australia. No wonder the people of Australia say, ‘What the hell goes on in Canberra?’ It is never reported. We discuss some very important issues in this chamber, but rarely do I see them highlighted where it is important. And when you have journalists who are prepared to break a confidence and run a story like they have just out from an election you have to ask yourself why.

I have been around politics for a long time and I have a very strong feeling about journalists. I have never given off-the-cuff comments to any journalist. I have a good reason for that. I come from a country background and I learnt long ago you never pat a black snake on the head—it will bite you. That is what happens here. I warn young members of the parliament to take this as a lesson that you never brief the journalists. Do not try and buy them and think you will get some meteoric rise in politics by going behind your friends’ backs to try to give them some information. They will bite you. There is a good lesson in this for young parliamentarians—do not get involved.

I take it very seriously because, as I said, there are very important issues here that we are discussing weeks out from an election, yet we are not interested in those. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to stand up here and talk about character, he has a very short memory because I recall in this place only a few weeks ago that certain questions were being asked about a lunch and a dinner in Western Australia. We saw some obfuscation at that particular time about whether we attended the lunch or the dinner or whether we did not. If you are going to point fingers, you want to think about yourself and where you stand on some of these particular issues. There are a number of points that need to be explained by the Leader of the Opposition.

Investigation is rare in journalism in Australia. We have a lazy press. We do not get investigative journalists any more, just people who want cheap headlines. When there was some investigation about a company run by the wife of the Leader of the Opposition, there was a quick headline saying, ‘Oh, we will sell it.’ I have not seen it for sale. And we have had no questions asked by the media about that, have we?

Another point that many in this parliament probably do not realise, but it was certainly an issue at the time, is that the Leader of the Opposition was a senior adviser to the Goss government. It has been mentioned in the parliament on a number of occasions, but something that has never been told is the fact that the very first contract that Therese Rein got in Queensland was with the Goss government when the Leader of the Opposition was the senior adviser and he did not abstain from giving advice to the government. If you want to point fingers, you have to start explaining some of these things about what went on. You cannot run away and hide.

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