Senate debates

Thursday, 9 February 2017

Bills

National Integrity Commission Bill 2013; Second Reading

9:53 am

Photo of Ian MacdonaldIan Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Good heavens, I would not have guessed that without hearing Senator Ludlam's first speech—always there for broadcast day, always there when he thinks he might be able to resurrect or retain some of the few people who vote for the Greens political party. I think Australians are waking up to the absolute hypocrisy of the Greens, and they now see the Greens under pressure. The Labor Party I think are at last understanding that they really have to separate themselves from the Greens, otherwise the Greens will take over their dwindling support on the left—it still will not save the Greens; it will just take the Greens and the Labor Party down at the same time. These populist parties, who do extract people who say 'a pox on all your houses', have left the Greens and gone elsewhere.

As I said in our party room the other day—I do not want to indicate what was said in the party room but these are my own thoughts, not the party room's thoughts especially—it is about time our leaders—all of our leaders, and Senator Di Natale would be a good start—started emphasising how much work politicians do, how much commitment most of the people who sit in this parliament—most, I might add—have. They are here because they believe in Australia and they believe that they can make a contribution to Australia. By the standards in the community they do not get particularly well-paid, and there are hundreds of examples of that. Someone has to stand up, rather than just Senator Ludlam joining the populist theme and denigrating by innuendo everybody in this chamber and the other chamber, and start arguing for politicians, arguing for parliamentarians, saying why they are there. Most parliamentarians—or those on this side—would have done infinitely better financially staying in their legal practice, staying in their business, staying in their veterinary practice, staying in the jobs they had before. That is not why they have come into this chamber. I will be talking on this again in another bill coming up, and I will be opposing my government and again moving amendments. If the Greens were true to their cause, they would be supporting me too. They might on the authority one, but they will not on the other one. They are without value, without any semblance of directness and honesty, when it comes to policy matters.

We do in Australia at the moment have all of the elements to ensure that Australia, its government, its institutions and its businesses are as corruption free as possible, and certainly we are as good as anyone else in the world. In December last year the government released its first National Action Plan under the Open Government Partnership. This consisted of a number of commitments to advanced transparency, accountability, public participation and technical innovation in Australia over the next two years. As I have foreshadowed, I have a couple of amendments to government bills that, if adopted by the parliament, would add to the role of that plan. I will be seeking the support of other senators—not with a great deal of confidence, I might say, but I will seek that support—and we will see then the rhetoric of the Greens, their nontransparency, their appeal to the populists—those who are leaving the Greens in droves. We will see how they carry on. Australia is not perfect, but we are as good as any other country in the world. We are as good as you possibly can be in a democracy and in a large business operation like the governance of Australia. I will certainly oppose this bill.

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