Today's matter of public importance is indeed incredibly important, but before I talk on that I just want to pick up on the member for Grey's assertion that the Labor Party is somehow whipping up the sideshow on this. I might point out to the member for Grey that the AFP commissioner, Andrew Colvin himself, said that a media tip-off would 'potentially put officers in danger and compromise operations'. This is far from a sideshow. In fact, this is the core business of the AFP, and it should be the core business of your minister. This government has ultimately failed to be accountable to the Australian people, and this minister, the Minister for Jobs and Innovation, has ultimately failed in her ministerial responsibility.
Even a cursory glance at the definition of ministerial responsibility will tell you that a minister is ultimately responsible for the actions of their department, even without the knowledge of an infraction by subordinates. The minister approved the hiring and ongoing employment of those civil servants. The cabinet minister ultimately bears responsibility for the actions of their staff. I say to you: if Minister Cash didn't know what was going on in her office then she's incompetent, and if she did know then she's handling the truth very recklessly. I would say to you, as a newly minted opposition backbencher, that, if my staff tipped off the media about anything, I would know, and, if I didn't know, there would be problems. So how can she possibly stand in this place and say, 'I didn't know; I don't know; my staff didn't do anything,' seven times, and then come back to that same committee and recant and say, 'Oh, a staff member did it without my knowledge'? I say 'bunkum' to that, absolutely. She misled the Senate five times, falsely denying that her office was the source of the leak. It is truly disgraceful.
Someone mentioned whiteboard walking. Game of Thrones might have White Walkers, but I say that this government has the ultimate destructive force: Senator Michaelia Cash, who is the whiteboard walker—absolutely. She believes that she is above her ministerial responsibility. She believes she's above the parliament. She believes she's above the law, rebuffing a subpoena by the Federal Court and, incidentally, having the Commonwealth lawyers being paid to rebuff that. And now she thinks she's fit to serve. Well, she might well fit behind a whiteboard, but she is not fit to be in this place, and this Prime Minister should not be supporting her.
She asked the Registered Organisations Commission to consider investigations of donations from the AWU to GetUp!. Then she is quoted as saying: 'I have issued instructions for the subpoena to be set aside. I do not intend to play the court process out publicly.' So, on one hand, at some level it's okay to call in the cameras on an AFP raid, but there's nothing to see here publicly, folks, when the minister who is responsible is being called to account.
Ms Madeleine King: And she's a lawyer.
Ms SWANSON: Yes, she is a lawyer. I take the interjection from my learned colleague the member for Brand. The minister is a lawyer. You would think she would know the law better. We often talk about the court of public opinion in this place. I would say to you that in no court in this country, whether it be the court of public opinion or the court of law, would this stand up, and it won't stand up. It really won't stand up.
If her staff somehow decided to tip off the media without her knowledge, I want to know: what did the Prime Minister know as well when he had that meeting with her and her staff? The other question that I think really needs to be asked is: who did make the phone call to the Registered Organisations Commission? I think that's a really interesting question to ask, because that person apparently, when they made that call, said that they were fearful that documents may be destroyed or tampered with. So I think that's the other big question: who made the call to the Registered Organisations Commission? Who made the call—or was there more than one who made the call? (Time expired)
