Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Warringah for putting this matter of public importance on the agenda this afternoon. I think it's a fantastic debate that we need to have. Every time that somebody in the political system or in public life does something wrong, it diminishes the public standing of those people—just like the games that have been played in here by the Labor Party today. When the broader public of Australia look at the federal parliament today, look at the games that have been played and look at the time that has been wasted, they won't determine whether it was one side or the other, it'll just be a stain on all of our careers. The Independents are just as guilty as anyone. There's a whole raft of people at fault with what happens in this place.

I spent 14 years, before I came here, in the Victorian parliament, where I had to spend most of that time in opposition to the Labor Party. The Labor Party had a minister who was found guilty of putting his dogs into a car and telling the driver to drive halfway around Victoria. He thought this was a good use of taxpayers' money in Victoria. But eventually he got found out and he lost his job. We also had key figures in the Victorian Labor Party who deliberately changed their address. They had a caravan more than 80 kilometres away from the parliament in Melbourne, which they had listed as their primary address. That entitled them to somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000, which they picked up every pay for about two years—completely deceitful! But eventually they were found out and they lost their jobs. We also had the red shirt brigade in Victoria with the Labor Party. They worked out a very devious plan to take taxpayer money and use it for their own political campaign to employ workers to hit the streets, hit the phones and, in a paid manner, do the work for which a political party normally needs volunteers. Daniel Andrews and John Lenders devised this plan beautifully so they could take over $300,000 of taxpayer money. They then used that $300,000, which they stole from the Victorian taxpayer, on the campaigns of 20 or 30 members of the Victorian parliament. Many of those Victorian parliamentarians are still in power now because of the money that was spent on the red shirt campaign.

We have just found out now that during this time some developer chap in eastern Victoria had a very close relationship with the Premier of Victoria. This was never brought out into the open until just recently. Just like the people who put in the false claims as to where they live, the guy who put the dogs in the chauffeured van and the red shirts campaign, eventually you get caught. That's the good thing about politics in Australia. If you do the wrong thing, you do so in the knowledge that eventually the systems we have in place now will catch you out, and when they do, you will lose your job and your reputation. You probably did it for $200 or $2,000, some ridiculous amount of money. If you do the wrong thing in Australia in public life, you must understand that you'll get caught. Can we improve on it? We probably can, but with the Morrison government now we have a Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who are open, calm and delivering on their promises. This is what the people of Australia want. They want you to do what you say you are going to do. My interjection was that Daniel Andrews, in amongst all the corruption and everything they did wrong, is able to point to some level-crossing removals and say, 'At least we delivered on this.' Support our drought affected farmers; governments have to continue to do what they say they're going to do; and everybody in public life has to keep their noses clean.

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