Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Amen!' the member for Fisher says. May that long occur. We're not opposing accountability, certainly not. I wouldn't want anybody reading this Hansard,quite apart from sending themselves to sleep, to think that we are opposing accountability, because that is not what we are about. But what problem, I do ask, is this bill actually solving? Why are there only four agencies—the ones I mentioned before? Why them, and why at this point in time? Why are their new performance standards not subject to tabling, to disallowance and to publication? These are genuine questions, and I know they'll probably be answered by the member for Sturt, who follows me. I have a high regard for her knowledge of the law and for her history in that regard and her legal work in the past. But are suspension and termination safeguards strong enough to protect procedural fairness and independence? These are all the sorts of questions that that people who are of a like mind will be asking. They certainly are. And do these governance procedures or architecture—call it what you like—preserve the right balance between executive control and parliamentary oversight?

Again, it gets back to the balance. I earnestly don't believe that Labor is getting the balance right in so many areas of endeavour. If this bill is about, as Labor will claim, restoring public trust and modernising accountability, then consistency is important. Keep to your word. Stick to your promises. If you say you're going to do something, then for goodness sake do it. I don't think we get that right these days. The days of Wal Fife leaning over the back fence with my father, talking about the government of the day and what things are happening in Canberra or Macquarie Street, as the case was, are long over, and people unfortunately have this distrust. It is such a shame. Rather than sometimes squabbling over the scraps off the table, the parliamentary dispatch box, I think we should be talking up what we do as a profession, because we're just playing into the hands of One Nation, of the Independents and of those dreaded teals. We are. We should be proud of what we do as party politicians. We should, because we have provided the best form of government since Federation. Long may that continue. Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that, if the Independents ever get hold of the Treasury benches, control of the blue room, the blue carpeted offices and the cabinet table, then we are all in a lot of trouble—a world of hurt.

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