Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Before I rip into this one—and there is a lot to rip into—I just want to call out my colleague Senator Rice for the tenacity and integrity that she has shown in her pursuit of the government over this matter of the Gaetjens report. It has thrown into sharp relief the closed-door, closed-minded, closed-ranks mindset of Liberal Party MPs—backbenchers particularly—when considering this particular scandal that we have in front of us. I mean, let's be really clear about what the public understand and know to be the truth of this matter: the Morrison government, faced with electoral oblivion, decided to cheat, and as part of that process they decided to use public funds. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of money that belongs to the Australian community was misused—and not in a scattergun, not because, 'Oh, we just didn't realise' and not because it was maybe one here or there. This was meticulous, calculated misuse of public funds for political gain—an absolute outrage and disgrace.

We've heard many an excuse given by the government over this period, and not a single one of them holds water. It really boils straight down to this. What this Senate is trying to do and will continue to try to do is one simple thing: to get the report in full and read it. That's all the Senate is trying to do here. Yet the government is closing shop, closing ranks, protecting each other.

As Senator Waters rightly pointed out in her contribution to this debate, if the so-called anticorruption commission that last year the government mentioned—or mumbled about—ever came into being as imagined, it would not stop the issues that we have seen. There's a simple reason for that—they know that, without the ability to misuse public funds in this way, they can't win. They don't have a compelling argument for the Australian people—they don't have an economic record to speak of, they don't have a social record to speak of and they certainly, as Senator Whish-Wilson knows so well, don't have an environmental record to speak of. They have but one thing—the levers of executive power, which they are able to pull to rain money down on marginal electorate seats to try to win elections.

We hear the stories of colour-coded spreadsheets and emails going backwards and forwards. The public have a clear understanding that of course the Prime Minister's office was involved and of course the Prime Minister's office knew. The pretence to anything other than that is absolutely ridiculous. What really gets me is that they didn't just spend money on marginal seats—they didn't just make it rain in the seats of Pearce and Swan—and chuck on the scrap heap 32 other applications across WA, totalling $12 million; they also made it rain in safe Liberal seats, like the seat of Tangney, held by Ben Morton MP. There was $500,000 for an exclusive tennis club. It's absolutely disgraceful. As Senator Hanson-Young so rightly observed, they just can't help themselves. They're like dragons confronted with a hoard of gold—they just need to nestle themselves in it and sleep for a thousand years. It is beyond sickening to the Australian public.

Let me also bring a bit of information to the chamber that may well be surprising news to members of the Liberal Party in this place and the other place, who I suspect haven't had very long experience or history of filling out grant applications for a community organisation. That takes time and effort. Often this is done by volunteers, who stay up late at night to get the thing done. Putting one of these grant applications forward takes so much out of small community organisations. They do that in good faith that the information they provide will be considered on its merits. What we have seen here is that applications were chucked on the scrap heap unless granting them rendered a political dividend to the government. It's absolutely disgraceful.

Australian communities also understand that this type of misuse of public funds is not the proclivity of one side of politics. If the last 25 years in this country show anything, it is that when both sides of politics have their backs to the wall they end up sticking their hand in the public pocket and spending the money for personal gain. It happened in 1993 with the Keating government. It has happened again now with this government. It is a symptom of the mentality that has crept into the heart of the Australian political discourse and into the Australian political establishment. That mentality is: win at all costs. And, on the altar of that mentality, communities miss out, people are abused and deals are done. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of deals that this government cut to keep itself in power. We here in the Greens have not forgotten the very cosy conversations that would have happened between Mr Palmer and the government to secure the $60 million worth of election spending which did them so well in so many marginal seats. Again, this is instead of putting a compelling argument to the Australian people. It is an admission of the fundamental hollowness of that argument.

This Senate will continue to pursue the government. Senator Rice will continue to pursue the government. Senator Waters will continue to push for the implementation of a real national anti-corruption commission. We have been at it for 10 years and we will be at it for another 10 years, if that is what it takes. But we will drive political corruption out of this place because it is what the Australian people send us here to do. It is what they want to see. They want to know that money that they give in good faith and information that they give in good faith will be considered on its merits. That is not a lot to ask. It is time for this government to own up, stop hiding and face the consequences of its ill-conceived actions.