Senate debates

Thursday, 20 March 2014

Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers

Sinodinos, Senator Arthur

3:08 pm

Photo of Simon BirminghamSimon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

Again today we have seen from the Australian Labor Party a party that cannot get on with the proper business and policy issues confronting Australia—a party that want to be distracted by the politics of smear, by the politics of envy and by the politics of distraction. Listening to Senator Wong then it is clear that the smear continues from the Australian Labor Party—the desperate smear they have been engaging in all week continues against Senator Sinodinos and they have been attempting to spread it across the government.

There could not be a more ethical act that Senator Sinodinos could have undertaken than to stand aside as he has done this week. There could not have been a more ethical act than of his own volition to have stood aside from his duties entirely, whilst he simply gives evidence to the ICAC—evidence to the same body that Mr Greg Combet has given evidence to and that Senator Doug Cameron last year gave evidence to. Senator Sinodinos will give evidence to exactly the same body. Because he is a man of such ethical conduct, because he is a man who puts country before self and because he is a man who puts government before self, he has stood aside from his duties so as not to be a distraction and to allow us to get on with the proper business of government. That is not the Labor Party's interest; their interest is to continue this politics of smear and to now allow any proper running of the country to occur.

It is not just the politics of smear, but, as I said, it is also a politics of envy. You note, Mr Acting Deputy President, that when the Labor Party are challenged to say what the allegations are—what the actual wrongdoing is—they can never cite them, but they will suggest: 'Senator Sinodinos perhaps was making money in an occupation he held prior to being in the Australian Senate.' They will throw around figures of what was earned or what could have been earned had business dealings gone through. They are not alleging a particular wrongdoing. They are, of course, trying to insinuate by the potential for income to have been made prior to him even being in this place that there is somehow some wrong attached to that. It is base class politics—politics of envy—coming from the Labor Party that people in business might occasionally make money out of being in business. There is nothing wrong with people in business seeking to make money. The Labor Party, rather than insinuating there might be something wrong about it, might make the allegation about it point blank.

Lastly, it is not just the politics of smear and the politics of envy, from those opposite but also the politics of distraction. On this day when they came into this chamber and voted against the repeal of the carbon tax, they were desperate to be talking about anything other than those matters that impact directly on Australian families and Australian businesses. Today the Labor Party voted to keep higher electricity prices and to put those electricity prices up again on 1 July of this year. That is what Labor senators did. They may have gone to the last election claiming that they had abolished the carbon tax and their lead candidate in the West Australian Senate by-election may even have been out there today claiming that he stood to abolish the carbon tax, but today every single Labor senator came in here—aside from Senator Pratt, who does not seem to be able to get to the Senate nowadays—and voted to keep the carbon tax. They voted to keep the carbon tax and to put it up on 1 July this year, costing businesses and families ever more.

Little wonder that they are trying to hide behind the politics of smear, the politics of envy and the politics of distraction at a time like this—rather than standing up for Australian people, Australian families, Australian businesses, Australian jobs and the policies this government is attempting to deploy to make this country competitive again, to reduce the cost-of-living pressures on Australians and to create new jobs for the future. These are the things we should be debating in this place. Senator Sinodinos wants to see our government get on and do that, and that is why he has done the honourable thing. It is a shame those opposite are incapable of doing it. (Time expired)

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