Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If there is one thing that Australians cannot tolerate it is people in positions of authority doing things that ordinary Australians can't do and which, if they did do them they would have the book thrown at them. But we have seen that happen through the course of the last few months.

There was the sports rorts affair, in particular, where taxpayer money was used as a political slush fund, delivering decisions to mates that could never be done—nor should be done—outside, and no-one was accountable for that until the very last moment. If someone were putting in a document to Centrelink that was not right and if there were a family benefit, a childcare benefit or an age pension dependent on it and it turned out that the document were false, then they would have the book thrown at them. And yet we can have a minister of the Crown in this place use a forged document to gain political benefit and absolutely nothing happens at all!

There is the way in which accountability runs in this place. The Nationals, who see themselves as the tail wagging the dog, have had one of their people thrown out of a ministerial position, but a Liberal Party minister can hold onto his position and even have the Prime Minister ring a police commissioner to help him! The double standards are appalling, and should end.