Senator SCHACHT(3.06 p.m.) —I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (Senator Herron), to questions without notice asked today, relating to nursing home bonds.

Yesterday and today the minister has given the worst performance I can remember in my 10 years in the Senate in the gibberish he has used to try to explain the government's policy regarding the bonds being charged for nursing homes.

I want to compliment Senator Herron on two things he did in my 10 years here that ought to be noted. Firstly, he has always opposed the tobacco industry and has moved to restrict smoking in Australia, when it is against his party's policy. Secondly, he very courageously took leave from this Senate to work in Rwanda as a doctor, when that tragedy occurred some years ago.

Since then, his performance as a minister has been abysmal. In his answers today and yesterday on the issue of nursing homes, to defend himself he has referred to senators as altar boys and acolytes; he has accused Senator Mackay of being a better blonde than Senator Kernot; he has attacked trade unionists as being lazy, even though he is a member of the strongest trade union in Australia, the AMA.

Today the minister had to withdraw remarks about the Irish. He also attacked Senator Crowley, implying that she is no longer a doctor, just because she is a senator. He also defended himself with phrases about the Marie Celeste and the Titanic. I think it very appropriate that he made the Freudian slip of mentioning the Titanic as it reflects his own performance.

Again today, when Senator Faulkner and I asked questions about conflict of interest, his response ultimately was, `The common law covers it.' That is utter gibberish. We did not ask about the common law; we asked, `Does the government have a policy about the conflict of interest between the Moran group running a several hundred million dollar nursing home empire and also apparently having a number of real estate agencies operating in the same building?' It was a simple question. His answer was, `The common law covers that.'

How does the common law cover the conflict of interest? He could have said, `There is no conflict of interest', or `There is a conflict of interest', or `I will investigate; I will come back.' The reasonable thing for the minister to do if he was not sure was to take it on notice. This minister gets up and babbles away and says the first thing that comes into his mind. In this case, common law was the defence.

Senator Bob Collins —Gibberish!

Senator SCHACHT —As Senator Collins quite rightly said, this is gibberish. He seemed to have the view, this hopeless minister, this hapless minister, that the best way to defend the government's policy was to fill up the four minutes allocated to answer the question, even when it was contradictory, even when it could not be understood by any sensible person. The one time he did say yes or no was in answer to a question by my colleague Senator Collins who will deal with how the minister got himself into even deeper problems by attempting to give a brief answer.

But, on the remaining matters, this minister could not explain the government's policy. I asked him about the connections with Mr Moran and the Moran group. Yesterday the minister said, `I don't agree with Mr Moran's comments, but I admire what he has done in establishing his empire.' He would not comment on the fact that Mr Moran's own words were that he has run Liberal Party policy on nursing homes. It is dominated—

Senator Cook —And made a profit out of it.

Senator SCHACHT —And he has made—as Senator Cook said—an enormous profit. The Financial Review reported:

Doug Moran admits his nursing home business is virtually underwritten by $2 billion in government subsidies.

What other business gets paid every third working day of the month in advance?

The government policy is a basic way of shovelling money out of the public purse into Doug Moran's private empire. But they cannot understand the conflict of interest. If Senator Herron can come back and explain how common law covers this issue, I will be staggered and surprised.

Mr Moran is on the public record skiting about how he has got the Liberal Party to adopt policy that suits him—and overwhelmingly him. He has been making hundreds of millions of dollars of profit over many years, and then he has been donating it back to the Liberal Party. (Time expired)