George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to draw to the attention of the Senate the conduct of a member of the Senate: Senator the Hon. Bob Carr, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In addressing the conduct of Senator Bob Carr I will be very, very mindful of the rulings you have lately given on the points of order I took and Senator Fifield took concerning Senator Collins's reflections on Senator Arthur Sinodinos. Before I direct my remarks to Senator Bob Carr, however, let me say that the personal attack on Senator Arthur Sinodinos AO—a person of absolutely unimpeachable integrity who has served this country as a senior Treasury official, for many years as the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister and as a member of this Senate and, I might say, is likely to serve this country in even higher office in the years to come—on the basis of innuendo, snide insinuation and assertions dressed up as questions which contain innuendos of a most despicable character, reflects both on the personal character of Senator Jacinta Collins that she would deliver such a speech and on the baseness of the people who wrote that script for her.

The matter that I wish to raise in relation to Senator Bob Carr is this: Senator Carr has recorded on the Register of Senators' Interests a shareholding in a company called RJ Carr Pty Ltd. In doing so, he of course observed the obligations cast upon him to register that interest. But the issue that is of concern concerning Senator Bob Carr—who is, of course, Australia's face to the world—is the nature of the shareholding and the nature of the business. Senator Carr is, according to the register, the sole shareholder in that company, and that company—a private company which is the corporate alter ego of Senator Bob Carr himself—is a lobbying business. It is a political lobbying business. And Senator Bob Carr, by his registration of that interest on the Register of Senators' Interests as a current interest, has declared to the Senate that he is currently engaged in and is the owner of a political lobbying business.