Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the minister's response.

I find it very shameful. What a sorry, sorry affair this is, and what a poor show from our government. Australians deserve an explanation. You can tell us whatever rot you want to in here. This is why there is no trust from the Australian people. Senator McKenzie stepped down because she had not declared her membership of a shooting club that received $36,000 under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grants Program to pay for new toilets. The government still maintains that she didn't do anything wrong in targeting the sports funding to marginal electorates that the coalition wanted to win in the 2019 election.

It was the right thing for Senator McKenzie to resign—well, better late than never! I said within 12 hours she had to go, and I had no problem in texting her and telling her that either. Her behaviour was disgraceful. But, by pinning her resignation on a conflict of interest, the government are trying to pretend that using taxpayers' money to bolster their re-election campaign is acceptable behaviour. They're saying that pork barrelling is acceptable behaviour. They're saying that using a supposedly independent $100 million grant scheme as a slush fund is, once again, acceptable political behaviour. They're telling us that they don't see a problem with using a spreadsheet colour-coded by electorate to overrule the independent advice of Sport Australia. They don't see any issue with the fact that worthy projects missed out on funding because they weren't in electorates that the coalition needed to win and knew they did haven't the numbers to win.

Now they're telling us not to worry about the independent review from the very well-respected Auditor-General. Apparently, the auditors got it wrong. The PM is asking us, instead of putting our trust in the Auditor-General, to believe in a PM&C review into whether Senator McKenzie breached the ministerial standards. The person in charge of the review was Mr Phil Gaetjens, the head of PM&C. He is supposed to be an objective observer but he's really the PM's former chief of staff. If that is not a conflict of interest, my God, what is wrong with you people in here? Now we've been told we can't see the report? We just have to take the PM's word, his mate's word about whether Senator McKenzie's behaviour was unethical? We don't need his word, because every Australian out there can see it is unethical. What is going on in here?

Without seeing the report, the public can't know how Mr Gaetjens investigated the matter or how he came to his conclusions. That would be because, I imagine, the report is below the standard required. I'm not the only one saying this. Nearly every Australian out there is saying it. If you think you're pulling the wool over their eyes, that is shameful, absolutely shameful. I want trust. I want trust back in politicians, and you're doing everything you can to destroy that—everything. I've had a gutful.

We're supposed to trust this so-called independent process that found that Senator McKenzie made a mistake in not declaring her shooting club membership, but not that she misused taxpayer funds. According to the Prime Minister we're supposed to trust that there was no basis for the suggestion that political considerations were the primary determining factor. Does he take us all for morons? Does he? Does he take millions of Australians out there for absolute morons? Shameful! Apparently all this should be more convincing than the Auditor-General. The Auditor-General is going up against the PM's mate, and apparently we should trust the PM when he says the report shows there is nothing to see here, nothing to see here, but he does haven't the guts to show that report here and show it to millions of Australians that want to see that report. Like I said, another shameful day in politics today. I cannot believe the Minister representing the Prime Minister didn't blush when he was running his lines over there. He feels no shame; he has no conscience. He might as well as fronted up here and declared the sky isn't blue. We've seen the evidence; we've seen the spreadsheets; we know what you've been up to. At least have the courage, the spine, to release the PM&C report so that the Australian people can make up their own minds about why the PM's buddy would disagree with the Auditor-General.

If the process really was that thorough and independent, they shouldn't have anything to hide. Completely, absolutely, it wreaks of cover-up. It reeks of absolute cover-up. It's the stench of it. Stop protecting yourselves and start governing the country. Start being bloody honest with the people in this country. I don't buy all this 'it's a cabinet document' rubbish. Reports of this nature do get made public and they should be made public as a matter of course.

As David Speers wrote for the ABC over the weekend, there are cases of the PM&C reviews into potential breaches of the ministerial standards being published. Martin Parkinson's report on the post parliamentary jobs taken up by Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne were published in full last year. Before that, the public saw a summary of the PM&C review into Bruce Bilson's lobbying job after he left office. It wasn't the whole kit and caboodle but at least it was something. Why is the report on Senator McKenzie's behaviour any different? Could it be the government doesn't want to say either way about whether they think the pork barrelling is wrong or are they worried about sending other ministers down the gurgler if they admit this behaviour is unacceptable?

Seriously, the government are so good at avoiding taking responsibilities for their actions, they could teach a thing or two to Donald Trump. This is why we need a truly independent administration of the ministerial standards. Right now it's up to the Prime Minister or the secretary of the PM&C or a mate to decide whether a minister's actions are a breach of the code. But we've seen time and time and time again that the standards aren't enforced. They aren't upheld, they aren't binding and there's no accountability for ministers' behaviours or for those who blatantly ignore these rules. It isn't right that so many people in this place can get away with behaving in a way that doesn't align with public expectations. I assure you that you are way below those public expectations of how elected representatives should behave in this place.

Our licence to be here comes from voters. We have a responsibility to them to act in a way that aligns with public expectations and to hold each other to account when that doesn't happen. When it's up to the government to investigate themselves—God forbid; I don't know how you get away with investigating yourselves—that's when things go wrong. They do go wrong and are going wrong right now. I tell you now that that's got to stop. It's too easy for them to hide things away or ignore the facts in front of them. It's too easy to hold onto reports and information the public has a right to know about. When it's left up to the government, the enforcers of the rules have too much of an incentive to say that everything is fine and dandy, when most Australians would know that something reeks. Once again, it stinks.

I've been saying for a long time that there should be an independent body, like an independent parliamentary expenses authority, to oversee this sort of stuff. The body should be able to undertake its own reviews independently, make recommendations to the Prime Minister and publish all its findings. It should not be beholden to the public needs of government at the time. For even more serious corruption issues, we need a federal ICAC. Unfortunately, there will always be people in this place who abuse their power, and I tell you you see it frequently. It's getting great; you can nearly pick it out for breakfast. An integrity commission with teeth is the only way to make sure that they don't get away with it anymore. We urgently need to bring in more accountability and transparency of the behaviour of the people in power here. Until we do, this parliament will continue to lose the trust of voters. Honestly, that is the most shameful thing. You sit up here and you actually believe you are so untouchable.