THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
COALITION GAGS PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ABOUT MONIS LETTER
Tony Abbott has gagged federal parliament to prevent it debating his ministers failure to properly correct misleading statements about a letter from the Lindt Cafe siege gunman.
Time and time again, this Government has shown itself to be addicted to cover-up and secrecy.
The governments addiction to cover-up was again on display today when it shut down a censure motion condemning Julie Bishop and George Brandis for misleading parliament.
The Coalition has shown itself more concerned about talking tough on national security at press conferences than running a competent government.
To make matters worse the Foreign Minister and the Attorney-General misled the Australian people about this matter of national security.
The Australian public deserve to know why it took Senator Brandis and Ms Bishop over a week to correct the record about when they first discovered that a letter from Monis to Senator Brandis was not referred to a joint Federal/NSW review of the siege.
In a press release of 28 May 2015 Senator Brandis stated:
The letter, and my Department's reply, were both placed before the Inquiry into the Martin Place siege conducted by the Secretaries of the Prime Minister's and NSW Premier's Departments. Their report did not have any criticism of the way with which the Monis letter was dealt.
Within a day, this press release was quietly removed from the Attorney-General's website.
But it then took nearly a week for Senator Brandis and Ms Bishop to admit that this letter was not referred to the inquiry and they had mislead parliament about it. They waited until the end of the last parliamentary week to correct the record.
Senator Brandis and Ms Bishop now need to explain why they breached the Prime Ministers statement of ministerial ethical standards.
Instead, they are blocking a Senate inquiry into the matter and are resorting to a cover-up of a cover-up in order to avoid parliamentary scrutiny.
MONDAY, 15 JUNE 2015
