Senator SCHACHT (3:12 PM) —Senator Ferguson talks about sleaze. Who has brought sleaze into this issue? The foreign minister himself, by using remarks such as `busted-arsed countries' in discussions which have now got around the diplomatic world. He is the one who has brought the reputation of sleaze to this country. He is the one who has the disgrace of sleaze. What does he do in his visit to Chile? He gets the ambassador sacked because the car was late. He did not get the ambassador sacked because there had been misappropriation of money, a security breach or something serious.

Senator Faulkner —The ambassador didn't use the term `busted-arsed country'.

Senator SCHACHT —No. This is what he got sacked for: the plane was late, the car was late, Alexander Downer had to stand at the airport for some time and then he had to catch a taxi. Goodness me! That is something several million Australians do every week, but this was a sackable offence to this minister. This is typical of the background of Alexander Downer. He is the last vestige of 18th century Australian aristocracy—a bunyip aristocracy. He was brought up in the Adelaide Hills at Arbury Park, with 200 acres, deer running around, a dolls house for the children to play in, gatekeepers and gamekeepers. He inherited the seat. His mother won the preselection for him. She got on the phone and won the preselection for Mayo in 1984. She is the one with the real guts in the Downer family. She got him into parliament. He falls into the foreign affairs portfolio as a—

Senator Faulkner —Failed Liberal leader.

Senator SCHACHT —failed Liberal leader, and then he becomes this joke. How can you explain to people in the foreign affairs department that you will not get sacked for a security breach but you will get sacked if the car is late? That is disgraceful. Then they fit up this ambassador, who has had 35 years in the department; the minister tells the department to sack him. He says, `Find a reason to say that he was not good at his other work and then we will sack him.' Also we had the case two years ago when Alexander Downer, because he had got into problems attending the cricket at Lords, said, `I have to go to Greece for a meeting.' He gave two days notice to the ambassador to try and arrange an official dinner. It was a Greek holiday period; all the ministers were out of Athens. The ambassador could not find anybody, so Alexander Downer got him sacked because he could not get the right people to the dinner. That has all been written about.

This minister is capricious and personal in dealing with the members of his department. This is not the way to get department officials working with good morale to the advantage of Australia. They are now petrified. If you get the car booking wrong, or if you do not get the name places at the dinner table right, you get sacked. If you get all the little bits and pieces wrong, you get sacked by this bloke because it does not fit his aristocratic view of how he should be treated as foreign minister.

It is a disgraceful performance, like his performance several years ago when he said that there were no complaints about the ending of the Radio Australia service and other aid programs to Asia. He said, `I was not lobbied by any of those ministers from South-East Asia,' when in fact they had all made complaints; they had all publicly called for him to reverse the decision. He did not sack himself; he did not say that that was his fault. But if you get the car booking wrong or get the dinner table wrong, you are gone in the foreign affairs department. This minister is a giggling joke. He thinks it is funny to make remarks like `busted-arsed countries', as though this is funny. This is public schoolboy humour at its worst.

Senator Sherry —Toilet.

Senator SCHACHT —Yes, that is what it is: the humour you would write on the back of a toilet door at the public school or, if you were a fag for a senior prefect, this is what you would do. This is where Downer has been trained—the fag end of the public schoolboy system. This is his humour. If he wants to do that in the Liberal Party, fine. But if he wants to do it as foreign affairs minister of this country, it is disgraceful and it demeans the standing of this country. The publicity will not just be restricted to the parliament of Australia; this will go all round the world. Every ambassador in this capital city will send reports of what this foreign minister said back to their country, particularly those he has called a `busted-arsed country'; but he is the one with the busted arse. (Time expired)