Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I hasten to begin this by saying that the terms of this motion would have captured me in a past life, but Senator Rhiannon's motion is a little rich coming from a person who opposed my notice of motion of 14 August 2012 concerning former senator Bob Carr's interest in his former lobbying business, RJ Carr Pty Ltd, while Minister for Foreign Affairs. My motion noted that Prime Minister Gillard's standard of ministerial ethics required ministers to divest interests in any public company and called on Senator Carr to table advice he had received or relied on regarding compliance with these standards. Further, documents from the Prime Minister's office on this issue went missing after Ms Gillard was deposed as Prime Minister despite Prime Minister Rudd being advised to secure them. Yet today we have Senator Rhiannon purporting to want to tighten regulations on lobbying when she personally, as the Greens' spokesperson in this area, allowed Senator Carr to continue this breach. On 5 March the Greens' leader, Senator Milne, proclaimed during a censure motion debate that this was the first she had heard of Senator Carr retaining his shareholding. This is untrue. In 2012, together with Senator Rhiannon, Senator Milne voted down my motion seeking clarification— (Time expired)