Governor-General Amendment Bill 2002

Media Statement

Transcript - Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra - 9 December 2002

Check Against Delivery

This Bill seeks to amend the Governor General Act 1974 to require that the Governor-General's Annual Report be considered and commented on by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, and then ultimately by all members of Parliament.

Currently the Annual Report is simply laid before each House of the Parliament with Members and Senators prohibited from discussing or making commenting on it.

This Bill is not revolutionary but simply seeks to restore the accountability of the Governor-General to the Parliament of Australia.

A vibrant and effective democracy depends on the open and free exchange of views and opinions both amongst the wider community as well as inside our parliaments.

However, as a result of a historical hangover from a time before Australia had even formed into a nation, any criticism or discussion of the Queen or her representative, the Governor-General, is banned from Federal Parliament. This restriction is imposed by Standing Order 74, which was adapted from a similar convention governing Britain's House of Commons.

I have also sponsored a Private Members Motion which in conjunction with this Bill seeks to remedy this situation and ensure that this Parliament is able to consider and discuss all issues of national importance.

Across the community, in the media and around the kitchen table, Australians are discussing the performance of our current Governor-General. But no such debate is permitted in the Federal Parliament amongst our democratically elected representatives.

My motivation for tabling this Bill is to ensure public accountability of whoever holds the Office of Governor-General and the manner by which they conduct their public duties and responsibilities.

Those who defend the current embargo on parliamentary discussion about the performance of our Governor-Generals had their motivation for doing so blatantly exposed by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ian Sinclair. Justifying his opposition to any change Mr Sinclair told ABC Radio on October 31:

"The monarch is seen as a person who is a little bit above the laws that apply to every other citizen."

Well I would suggest that most Australians would consider such a situation obscene and alien to our society's egalitarian principles.

Despite his intentions, Mr Sinclair's contribution simply underlines why the status quo is no longer tenable. No public office holder is above the law and no public office should be shielded from parliamentary scrutiny.

It's that simple.

The Government's position with respect to my Bill is nothing short of hypocrisy.

While the Government, through the Leader of the House, has indicated its support for the retention of the current situation claiming that the Office of Governor-General "should be above party politics", they have spent the last 6½ years undermining just about every public institution in this country for their own ideological purposes.

Not only have they politicised institutions that are meant to be independent of the Executive Arm of Government, but they have systemically sort to manipulate and subject them to the electoral agenda of the Liberal and National parties.

They have nobbled the Federal public service through the removal of numerous departmental heads and replaced them with people the Prime Minister can trust. During the "Children Overboard Affair" they politicised and manipulated the Defence Department for their own political advantage.

Twelve of the Government's fourteen appointments to the Industrial Relations Commission have been from employer backgrounds. They have stacked the Board of the ABC with Liberal Party apparatchiks and mates of the Prime Minister.

But the most disturbing example of the Government's hypocrisy is way in which they let one of their own launch a vicious and personal attack on High Court Judge Michael Kirby from the safety of Parliamentary Privilege. The subsequent apology could never repair the damage done.

Of course Tony Abbott's memorable campaign of hysteria against politicians during the republic referendum showed that some conservatives are even prepared to denigrate parliamentary democracy itself.

The Australian people currently do not have the right to choose their Head of State. At the very least our democratically elected representatives should be able to comment on the vice-regal's performance.

I am a Republican. But whilst the Governor-General, as the Queen's representative, is our Head of State, they must be a figure of national unity – they must inspire respect and affection as Sir William Deane successfully achieved during his tenure.

It's time to restore the public's faith in our public institutions. Let's start by making the highest office in the land accountable to this Parliament.