Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendment Bill 2017. It did take quite a while to get here, but we have finally got here. We will support this legislation, but we also have some amendments that we will be putting forward. We got here because of a number of scandals—far too many—that have occurred over many years, diminishing the standing of politicians in the eyes of the public. Politicians are one of the least trusted professions in the country. When you go from being an ordinary general practitioner to being a politician you understand what it is like to take a slide down the rankings when it comes to respected professions.

It is hardly any surprise. We have members of parliament who claim to attend weddings, some MPs who actually claim for their honeymoon, MPs who scope out investment properties, some MPs catching a $5,000 helicopter flight, when a train ride costs $8 and, indeed, when you go by Comcar you would actually get there more quickly. So it is very important that we as a chamber start to make progress on this issue.