Ms GRIERSON (9:19 PM) —For the first time since the Fraser era 24 years ago, a Prime Minister now has control of both houses of the Australian parliament. With Senator Robert Hill already talking about diminishing Senate estimates powers, holding John Howard and his government to account will be challenging. Media reports suggest that holding the Howard government to account will be the domain of individual parliamentarians willing to step across the coalition ‘party line’—implying that Barnaby Joyce or National Party renegades will shape the government agenda.

While they may be able to influence, it is important not to confuse horse-trading with accountability. A $2 billion or $5 billion pay-off to rural Australia might make National Party members and Barnaby Joyce feel better about selling out on Telstra—

The SPEAKER —Order! The honourable member will refer to senators by their titles.

Ms GRIERSON —Senator Joyce, I am sorry—but it will not ensure service delivery obligations are met by a fully privatised Telstra. At best it may save some of their skins at the next election when, for ordinary Australians living in cities, towns or the bush, the internet will still be too slow, the mobile will still drop out, the wait for phone repairs will still take over three months and rental and call charges will increase unchecked by government regulation.

Accountability is a much more difficult process than trade-offs, rorts and vote buying. It involves rigorous scrutiny of all operations of government and their bureaucracies, whose complex processes can too often overwhelm ordinary Australians—ordinary Australians like Cornelia Rau, Vivian Solon or the 200 other people who may have been wrongfully detained by DIMIA. The government tried to hide these people under a bureaucratic curtain until exposed by public advocates, journalists and opposition members of parliament. After public outcry the Palmer inquiry was undertaken to investigate the actions of this government department—a department its report found to be ‘overly self-protective and defensive, a culture largely unwilling to challenge organisational norms or to engage in self-criticism or analysis’. All this was achieved with not a Senator Barnaby Joyce in sight!

In July, the ANAO released its damning report into the management of detention centre contracts, finding that DIMIA had no idea if the Australian taxpayer was receiving value for money for contracts worth around $120 million per year to American jailers Global Solutions Ltd. Worse, it found that the contracts gave DIMIA no way of knowing whether the basic needs of detainees are being met or their human rights are being respected. But Minister Vanstone is yet to be held accountable for her neglect.

Importantly, it was the Labor opposition that drew to the public’s attention that Mick Palmer had vacated his position as Inspector of Transport Security to conduct the Rau inquiry, with no-one acting in his place. Similarly, alarmed by the allegations of systematic drug movements through passenger baggage at our airports, antics with camel suits at Sydney airport and a string of other security breaches, the Labor members of the Joint Public Accounts and Audit Committee successfully moved that the aviation security inquiry be reopened. Unable to hide from public scrutiny, the government initiated its own inquiry under Sir John Wheeler—just in time, given the reminder from the tragic London bombings that there is no room for complacency when it comes to the safety and security of Australians in a world where terrorism must always be considered a risk factor.

As parliament returns there is an awakening amongst ordinary Australians that the greatly enhanced power of the government will now be turned against them in their workplaces. The Howard government suggests this new workplace relations front is part of the battle to save the Australian way of life. According to Howard’s way, the Australian way of life will be at risk unless working people lose as many minimum award standards as possible, such as meal breaks, holiday pay, penalty rates and the new maternity, paternity and personal family leave provisions; unless they do without a national wage case to set a liveable minimum wage and forgo their independent umpire. Moving people from secure permanent employment onto employer dictated AWAs will apparently make us more Australian! And the Prime Minister intends to spend much more than $20 million of our taxpayers’ money to wage this new war over the ‘Australian way of life’.

The Australian people do not live in a soap opera constructed by spin doctors and PR gurus. They live and work in families and in communities, all sharing the same goals—to be able to do an honest day’s work for a fair day’s pay so they can make ends meet and be sure that their loved ones have the opportunities they so richly deserve. Now more than ever before, the checks and balances of parliamentary accountability will be brought to bear by the Labor opposition to make sure the government’s new power does not overwhelm ordinary Australians and undermine the quality of life hard-fought for and won by generations of working people of this nation. Senator Barnaby Joyce can get on board for the working people of Queensland if he likes.