Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) | Hansard source

Eight now, as the leader of the Labor Party in the Senate, Senator Wong, rightly points out. Eight times the members of this government have refused to stand here and answer the questions and say the three simple words 'fit and proper'. They cannot apply them to the member for Chisholm, and they will not say them. What faith can the Australian people have in the member for Chisholm and the government that she is part of? What we're seeing instead is a display of obfuscation and delay, a blatant refusal to do the right thing, which necessitated this motion before the chamber, and the weak, short and lack-of-detail answer that came from Minister Cormann here today. Again, I point out that Senator McKenzie, the leader of the National Party in this place, gave a more robust defence and a longer explanation than the leader of the Liberal Party in this place. I think that says it all.

The Senate, of course, has done the right thing. I acknowledge all those senators who supported this motion and called upon Minister Cormann to attend the chamber to provide an explanation for the member for Chisholm's conduct and to assure the Australian people that she should be in this parliament. Of course, we didn't get any such assurance from the government.

I have to say, listening to the Prime Minister misdirect, listening to the Prime Minister play the race card and listening to the Prime Minister say and do anything to hang onto power does raise the question when we're talking about serious issues of national security and foreign interference. I think it's legitimate to ask: whose side is this Prime Minister on? Is he truly on the side of the Australian people or is he on the side of himself and his Liberal Party mates, clinging to power, hanging onto power, at any cost.

The questions that are being raised here are being interpreted by the Prime Minister as some kind of attempt to threaten his parliamentary majority. That's rubbish. These are questions that go to national security and foreign interference, and they should be rightly raised. If the government took questions of foreign interference and national security seriously, they would rightly answer these questions, because surely the first responsibility of a government above all else is to put the national security and the Australian interest above all else?

The Prime Minister and Minister Cormann owe it to the Australian people to provide an explanation for the member for Chisholm's conduct to ensure us that she is indeed a fit and proper person to serve her constituents and the Australian people in this parliament. They still haven't done so. It is extraordinary and it is contemptuous, and all it guarantees is that legitimate questions by all senators in this place, and indeed by all senators in the opposition and on the crossbench, will continue to be raised. Questions will continued to be rightly raised by the media and by the Australian people, because they go to the very heart of what it is to be a fit and proper person in this parliament. They go to the very heart of what it is to stand up and speak to and defend the national interest of the Australian people.