Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government is in terminal decline. This is a government incapable of addressing the key issues facing Australians. This is a government that lacks cohesive policies on economics, education, health, industrial relations, wage stagnation, housing affordability, infrastructure, climate change, and power prices. This is a government that has no idea how to deal with the growing inequality between the rich and powerful and the majority of Australians.

We have a Prime Minister who has sold out what he claims to be his principles and values for the keys to The Lodge. We have a weak Prime Minister , afraid to stand up against the extremists in his own party. We have a Prime Minister who presides over a divided rabble of a government. We have a Prime Minister whose incoherent economic policies have ranged from increasing the GST and handing taxing powers to the states to, finally, a $65 billion tax cut to his business mates , while increasing taxes on hardworking low- and middle-income Australians.

Nothing epitomises the incompetence of this government more than its promotion of trickle-down economics —its defence of the well heeled at the expense of working-class Australians. This government has engaged in an over-the-top defence of the rich and privileged. Regardless of the economic and social consequences, they protect their rich mates who access negative gearing, capital gains tax exemptions and unaffordable and unsustainable dividend imputation benefits. This demonstrates how unfit for office they are.

This is a government that lacks fair and equitable policies, clear direction and strong leadership. This is a government whose default position is to attack the working poor, the union movement, social security recipients, immigrants and asylum seekers. This is a government that has engaged in economic, social and environmental vandalism by failing to deal with climate change, intergenerational inequality and the largesse handed out by John Howard's economically irresponsible government. Former Treasurer Peter Costello stood idly by while John Howard, for purely political reasons, showered government largesse on well-heeled groups in the community who did not need a transfer of income from the battlers. It was Howard and Costello who created the structural deficit, and it's Prime Minister Turnbull and Treasurer Morrison who are acting in the time-honoured tradition of the coalition to protect the powerful and the privileged.

An example of the decay at the heart of this government is the reprehensible behaviour of the Minister for Jobs and Innovation and former Minister for Women and Minister for Employment, Senator Cash. I recently watched a BBC Panorama program called'Taking on Putin'. In this program, reporter John Sweeney outlined the misuse of the police force and government agencies by the Putin government. John Sweeney exposed the intimidation used by government agencies against Putin's political opponents and the propaganda used by the Russian government to discredit anyone who stands against Putin. It was amazing to watch Russian politicians claim that democracy was alive and well.

I couldn't help but think of Senator Cash as I watched this program that exposed government agency interference to attack political opponents. Her use of so-called independent government agencies to attack her political opponents is in the best traditions of Putin. Her constant use of parliamentary privilege to attack the government's opponents by using unsubstantiated allegations, hyperbole and misinformation would not be out of place in Putin's Russia. She has established and used so-called independent government agencies to investigate and attack her political opponents. Minister Cash has a web of former coalition advisers planted in so-called independent government agencies that are designed to attack the government's political opponents.

In the Panorama program, Putin's political allies were measured, calm and assured in the defence of the indefensible. Senator Cash is anything but measured, calm and assured. In her premeditated and mainly rehearsed diatribes against her political opponents, she is agitated, coarse, unsophisticated, frenzied and furious. It's not a good look for a cabinet minister. This is a minister who once revelled in a completely undeserved reputation as a competent and effective minister. Senator Cash is now a disgraced and diminished politician. She ignored the illegal actions of the former Building and Construction Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss as he breached the legislation he was handsomely paid to uphold. She failed to take basic steps to gain independent advice and assess the validity of Hadgkiss's claim to be innocent of breaches of the legislation. She authorised her appointee Nigel Hadgkiss to expend over $400,000 of public funds in legal costs defending the indefensible. She provided Hadgkiss with one month's salary to cover court-imposed fines, when she should have sacked him. She misled parliament on five occasions by claiming that no-one in her office alerted the media to Federal Police raids on the AWU offices, raids instigated by her creation the Registered Organisations Commission. She hid behind claims of public interest immunity in order to avoid legitimate questioning about the involvement of herself and her staff in providing advice to the media about the raid on the AWU office. She launched a reprehensible and widely condemned attack on talented and hardworking young women in the office of the Leader of the Opposition in a vain attempt to distract from her and her staff's involvement in the AWU raid. She failed to apologise for her bizarre and sexist behaviour. She continues to cover up the behaviour of herself, her staff and her political plants in government organisations.

If we had a Prime Minister with a backbone, he would have sacked Minister Cash. If Minister Cash had any semblance of decency and propriety, she would resign. Rather than do the right thing, the Prime Minister and his frontbenchers accused me of bullying Minister Cash. This nonsensical claim has been widely discredited by political commentators across the political spectrum. These are commentators who have taken the time to read the Hansard and view the footage of the exchange between me and this incompetent and beleaguered minister. In a political puff piece in The Australian Women's Weekly, the Prime Minister claims to have been bullied at school as an eight-year-old. A victim of bullying should not be making incorrect claims of bullying against his political opponents. Bullying is unacceptable, and this pathetic Prime Minister diminishes any credibility that he might still have by making untruthful attacks against me.

Minister Cash has had to resort to a new low and undertake an interview with The Daily Telegraph's Miranda Devine, of all people, in a vain attempt to rewrite history and concoct an unconvincing defence of her disgusting attacks on innocent young women. Smearing young women as part of her political attack on the Leader of the Opposition has been condemned by almost every political commentator of substance in this country. If Minister Cash had any political integrity, she would resign. If the Prime Minister was not such a political jellyback, he would sack her.

This low point in Australian politics demonstrates that we need a national integrity commission to weed out corrupt and unacceptable conduct by federal politicians and advisers and to maintain the integrity and independence of our statutory authorities. Until we have a national integrity commission, conduct which misuses executive power for political advantage will continue and coalition ministers will continue to hide behind elaborately concocted untruths and ploys such as using public interest immunity to hide unacceptable behaviour.