Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note and to make some remarks about the minister's contribution just now. You would think that this government, and indeed all senators in this chamber, would be seriously concerned and worried about the declining trust in politics. It is not an overstatement to say that this is a moment of crisis. Trust in Australian politics is at an all-time low. The 2019 Australian election survey, which is an important resource for every person here, showed that just one in four Australians are willing to express confidence in their political leaders and institutions. I find that terribly sad. I've spent much of my life in volunteer capacities seeking to contribute to Australian democratic institutions and to public debate. It's built on the idea that every Australian citizen has the ability to contribute, that every Australian citizen has the right to be heard and that the Australian parliament exists to safeguard those rights, to safeguard those interests and to ensure that we continue as a democratic community capable of taking important decisions for our nation together.

Just over one in 10 Australians are willing to say that they think government operates for all people. That statistic alone should concern every person in this chamber.

So, when a minister is asked to come to this place and explain why, since 2014, report after report after report that's been prepared by senators in this place has been ignored by the government, you would think he would do the Australian people the courtesy of providing a serious explanation, because Senate inquiries are a serious political process. Senate inquiries offer the opportunity for ordinary people working alone, working in community organisations or working as researchers to provide a perspective on the questions that should be concerning us as a nation.

I tell you what: just at the human level, there might be a job for people in chamber—a job that the Leader of the Government here was willing to disparage and making mocking remarks about, with a little bit of: 'Ha, ha, ha! How funny it was back in the dim, dark days of opposition when we had to stoop to chairing committees!' Well, Minister, that's not the way everybody in this place treats committees. We treat them seriously, and we know that the people who spend their time coming before us as witnesses take them seriously as well. These people spend hours writing submissions. Then we ask them to come to Canberra and provide evidence. We ask them to sit before us, to appear on television at times and to expose themselves to scrutiny. They come. They are willing to subject themselves and their evidence to our scrutiny. They sit before us and they answer questions. At times that's not comfortable for those witnesses, but they do it. Those ordinary Australians, those good citizens, do it because they believe that our democracy matters. They believe that the deliberative processes of the Senate matter.

So why is it that a minister, the leading representative of the government in this place, would have the temerity, the hubris and the arrogance to come into this chamber and treat a motion of this kind with contempt? He failed to respond to the original request to provide a response to all of these matters and has failed to provide a serious explanation for why they have done so. It's typical of the broader approach of this government, a government which shows disrespect to evidence and to experts on every policy decision.

It starts with the Prime Minister, doesn't it? I've given some thought in recent years to why the Prime Minister seems so pathologically incapable of responding to the public interest, because I'm actually a person who's generally generous about the motivations of the people around me. I know that I don't agree with many of the people on the other side, but I'm willing to acknowledge that they come here in a spirit of public service. But I have racked my brains to understand what it is that drives the Prime Minister. We've have had some fairly recent free character assessments offered by some of the people who know him best. According to the man who now occupies the position of Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Morrison is, in fact, just a liar; according to the unnamed frontbencher, Mr Morrison is a psycho; and, according to former Premier Berejiklian, he's a horrible, horrible person who—and I think this is the kicker and the thing which explains it the most—puts politics before people.