George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Every former cabinet minister would be captured by the transparency scheme—every former cabinet minister and every former member of parliament. So, everyone in this chamber, Senator Carr, including you and me, will one day be captured by the transparency scheme if we, after parliament, agree to act on behalf of a foreign principal. That is not because there is anything wrong with taking a job to act on behalf of a foreign principal—which could include, by the way, a foreign company—but because, just like the lobbyist register, there is a public interest in the transparency of relationships between a principal, a foreign principal in this case, who gives instructions to an Australian former parliamentarian and the former parliamentarian. I think the public are very glad that the Turnbull government has moved to make more transparent than they currently are arrangements between former members of parliament and foreign principals. Mr Robb is in no different a position than every former minister—I should have qualified that, Senator Carr, by saying that the obligation lasts for three years after the former cabinet minister has left the cabinet or the former member of parliament has left the parliament. It's also, by the way, an obligation that applies to former senior public servants who have left the Public Service. Where they accept a fee or a retainer to act on behalf of a foreign principal—for instance, for lobbying purposes—the public are entitled to know that.