Senator FAULKNER (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate)(3.02 p.m.) —I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for the Environment (Senator Hill), to questions without notice asked by Senator Faulkner today, relating to Public Service Commission guidelines on official conduct of Commonwealth public servants.

I want to say at the outset that I think it is an absolute disgrace that the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, has allowed the head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in this country—the head of the Australian Public Service—to moonlight for Victoria and make an extra $80,000 a year on top of his Public Service salary package of around $215,000.

We have a situation where the Howard government seems absolutely intent on changing the political morality of Australia to sanction self-interest. We heard a lot about this issue when it was said that the political morality of this country, with a new political consciousness and responsibility, was absolutely integral to the coalition government's conduct.

What happens is this. Mr Max Moore-Wilton is pulling down a salary package as the secretary of PM&C, in addition to being chairman of both the Victorian Public Transport Corporation and Southern Hydro Pty Ltd. Somewhere along the line, someone is not getting a bang for the buck. I do not know whether it is Victoria or the Commonwealth.

What has been exposed today is that there are some real questions that the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Hill, is unwilling to answer about the Guidelines on Official Conduct of Commonwealth Public Servants. Chapter 15 of this particular official code of conduct says that public servants are able to perform work outside the public service, provided this does not create the perception that they have placed themselves in conflict with their official duties, is not likely to affect their efficiency in the performance of their official duties, is performed wholly in their private time, and does not interfere with the performance of their official duties. There is no doubt that, in the case of Mr Max Moore-Wilton, he has breached all of those guidelines.

This is the same person who has been given the responsibility for inquiring into the acceptability and suitability of the Prime Minister's own code of ministerial conduct. He is the same person who has been given the responsibility by the Prime Minister of looking into the issue of conflict of interest with Mr Howard's own ministers. I assume Mr Moore-Wilton has been given this responsibility because it takes one to know one. This is the same man who should be a self-appointed expert in the matter of conflict of interest because, categorically, he is in breach of the Public Service Commission's Guidelines on Official Conduct of Commonwealth Public Servants.

A strong leader, a strong Prime Minister, would have said to Mr Max Moore-Wilton, `It's not on. You've got to set an example. You can't hold down a second job. You can't hold down a third job. It's not acceptable for the head of the Commonwealth Public Service in this country to be a triple-jobber. Forget about working for the state of Victoria. You're expected to work for the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Australia.' That is Mr Moore-Wilton's first and only responsibility. But, of course, John Howard is not a strong leader at all.

I must say that I think the Prime Minister, in failing to act when his ministers were proved to have breached his key guidelines of ministerial conduct and now in failing to act in relation to Mr Max Moore-Wilton, has yet again demonstrated his weakness. Not only is he demonstrating his weakness; he is destroying the integrity of the Commonwealth Public Service. He is destroying and ignoring the integrity of these guidelines in the Public Service code of conduct. For that, the Prime Minister and Mr Max Moore-Wilton ought to be thoroughly condemned.