Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I was just about to go on to my point, which was to remind the Senate that this debate is actually about ministerial standards, not the time wasting and the tediousness of Senator Brandis's interventions. The discussion is about ministerial standards, so let me remind the senators of some of the issues that led to the raised eyebrows of many who follow these important issues when they looked at the ministerial appointments that occurred from Prime Minister Turnbull.

I think that the best way to characterise these, although it is not as funny as this suggests really—it is quite a serious matter—is the commentary today about 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' and the new 'nudge unit' in the Prime Minister's office. To me, in one sense, that says it all about the discussion during question time today. It is very, very rare for me to side with Senator Sinodinos, who is now my counterpart, but let us look at the double standards that apply to Senator Sinodinos. When I made that statement in the Senate some time ago about his involvement with Australian Water Holdings, I was not making any allegations. I was going through a series of concerns that had been aired publicly and calling on the opposition of the day to respond. What we saw ultimately—and it took an awful lot of time—was that Senator Sinodinos was required to respond to the very serious concerns that were being aired about his role at Australian Water Holdings. He had to stand down.