SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Firstly I want to talk about a matter of Senate Privileges. People will remember during the election campaign, and more recently, Australians were surprised and shocked to see the police conducting raids, first on an office of a Senator of the Australian Parliament and then more recently on this Parliament. We are moving today in the Senate to refer these issues, and in particular the issue of any documents and materials seized, to the powerful Privileges Committee of the Senate.
There is a very important principle here. Parliamentary Privilege is about ensuring Members of the Opposition, Members of the crossbench, can do their job properly. Imagine a democracy in which every time a Government was embarrassed by information, they called in the police. Thats not the democracy we have in this country. Parliamentary Privilege is critical to the functioning of our democracy and we look forward to Senators supporting my motion to refer this very serious matter to the Privileges Committee.
On another matter, and I note I come after Senator Eric Abetz, who, I think, was extolling the virtues of the Howard Government and Mr Abbott. Can I say this, the first week, the first sitting day of the Parliament after the election and it is clear that Prime Minster Turnbull has no authority. He might have a sign on his door, but hes not actually the leader. What he is facing is a revolt from the backbench when it comes to watering down the Racial Discrimination Act. Hes been forced into a plebiscite on Marriage Equality which we know he doesnt support. How do we know that? Hes told us. And now we see in the papers today the Prime Minister was rolled on negative gearing by the Abbott conservatives in the Cabinet. The Prime Minister himself was rolled by Members loyal to Tony Abbott.
People might remember this is the Prime Minister who told Australia that the reason he was taking down Tony Abbott was the country wasnt getting the economic leadership it needed. The economic leadership that he is providing is weakness. The economic leadership he is providing is the capacity to be rolled by Members of his Cabinet who are still loyal, and still pining for Tony Abbott.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the situation with Senator Dastyari?
WONG: Senator Dastyari has acknowledged that he shouldnt have done it and hes paid the money to charity. Lets remember this was all disclosed. But I would say this, if Senator Bernardi, or any other member of the Coalition, or in fact The Greens, are so concerned about this, they should explain why they voted against the prohibition of foreign donations. Because thats what the Labor Party moved in the last Parliament. Lee Rhiannon, Richard Di Natale, Cory Bernardi, all of them voted against the prohibition of foreign donations. That was our amendment, that was our proposition. It remains our policy. So if Cory is so worried about, I look forward to his vote next time.
JOURNALIST: Does Sam Dastyari need to answer some questions and come out and explain?
WONG: Sam has already made public his views about this and as I said, its not like he has been hiding this. This has been on the Register, I think, for a couple of years.
JOURNALIST: Senator, should the Australian public be allowed to see photographs of the way Senators vote in the Senate Chamber?
WONG: These are matters that are highly contested, as you know, inside the Senate Chamber. I personally dont have a concern. There are enough bad photos of me out there anyway so it doesnt really bother me.
JOURNALIST: Senator Hinch is going to move a Notice of Motion which deals with Procedural 26, which would basically strike down that order that stops photographs. Will the Labor Party be supporting that?
WONG: On these issues, as you know, we have sought consensus across the Senate. So, we would need to make sure people were comfortable with the change but as I said, Ive got plenty of bad photos out there on the Internet so, Im not so worried.