Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) and the Minister for Employment (Senator Cash) to questions without notice asked by Senators Carr, Farrell and Sterle today relating to proposed laws concerning foreign donations and influence and to a 7.30 report concerning drivers for Tip Top.

The politics of this government is no longer about the battle of ideas or adherence to principle. We have heard very pejorative words used today—and we've heard all week—about the attacks on individuals. This is a government that has descended to assaults upon the character of individuals.

It was Malcolm Turnbull who came into office purporting to be a man of integrity. He was a man who said he would treat the public with intelligence. He said they would not be treated as idiots. What we have seen is that this government is now conducting itself on the basis of personal smears. We know that they've cast aside all assertions to be acting on terms of principle. We no longer have a conversation in this country about the values that should shape this country. We no longer have a conversation about the sort of country we want Australia to be. It is a conversation now that the Prime Minister—in fact, he discourages his front bench—is not interested in engaging in.

We see a proposition advanced with real venom on a premise that simply is this: that Bill Shorten and leading members of the Labor caucus are this government's and this Prime Minister's social and intellectual inferiors. This is what you get when you are falling behind in 24 news polls. It's a desperate measure seized upon by desperate men and women in desperate times. This is a government that is even willing to suggest that Labor MPs and Labor senators are traitors. No evidence is ever suggested to ascertain the truth of that matter, other than to imply that the security agents of this country support such a contention. What a preposterous idea: that the Attorney-General will engage the security agencies of this country in the domestic politics of the Commonwealth.