Senator CONROY (3:05 PM) —I move:

What we have seen today is another pitiful example of a minister out of her depth, unable to answer questions and unable to master the detail in her own brief. We asked a simple question about whether or not she had seen a major item about tax avoidance in this country. Let us remember that this is the Minister for Revenue. Her main job, her only job, should be protecting revenue in this country. She is not even aware of the issues. She is too busy trying to tell jokes—and what shocking ones they are—about why she cannot do her job. She is unable to give us advice, she says. She is unable to answer the question. Her answers to Senator Sherry's questions on notice are simply no. She will not give us the information; she will not tell us. This is a minister who is struggling, who is unable to get on top of the detail in her own portfolio.

We found out earlier this week why that is. It is clear that she is spending her time undermining Ross Cameron. You have got Ross Cameron out there doing his best to bring IFSA and the fund managers in this country to the table to provide detailed information to consumers about what it is costing them. Yet what does Senator Coonan do? She goes to a newspaper to interfere in Parliamentary Secretary Ross Cameron's portfolio, to undermine him, to cut his legs off and to do the bidding of fund managers in this country. It is no wonder she cannot manage her own portfolio. It is no wonder she spends her time looking after the tax avoiders in this country, flying off to Perth and going to the Royal Perth Yacht Club to look after the tax avoiders in Perth. That is what this minister spends her time doing. She pays no attention to detail and has no competence in her portfolio areas, and it is just exposed for all to see. I am glad we are on broadcast today. I am glad that everybody in Australia—

Senator CONROY —We were during question time. The light has gone out. The light is not on very often with you, Senator Chapman, but it has gone out now. We were on broadcast and that is why it is important that everybody in Australia saw that this minister wants to duck the questions, wants to avoid answering them, wants to hide behind jokes and wants to hide behind irrelevant arguments about the Labor Party and Centenary House because she cannot do her own job. She spends her time phoning the Perth Mint to try to make sure that the disproportionate pig in her ads is made smaller. The government has decided the most important thing this minister can do is get on the phone to worry about the size of a pig in an ad. It is not surprising, because this government is rolling out the pork barrel and it is sensitive about it. But can you imagine a minister in this government on the phone to the Perth Mint—because it was the only one open—desperately trying to find out how much money you can put into a pig that size? What a joke!

This is a minister who could not tell us how much it cost to reshoot the ad—a simple and straightforward question. Twice we have asked it now, and twice she has not been able to answer it. We asked: did you make this call to the Perth Mint? But there was no answer. The government do not want to talk about it, because they all know how embarrassing this is. Why won't she tell us the answers to these questions? What does she have to hide? This is quite abysmal from a minister who has now been in the job for nearly 2½ years. You could have given the minister some slack at the beginning. Yes, it is a tough portfolio and, yes, there are a lot of details to get across, but it is 2½ years in and she cannot answer the most basic questions about her own portfolio. She refuses to answer for her behaviour. She is trying to put in the fix again to help tax avoiders. Her own backbench is revolting against her, Don Randall has said that she is incompetent and cannot deal with her own portfolio and the Prime Minister turned up to listen to backbenchers in a meeting with Senator Coonan. It is obvious she cannot do the job. The Prime Minister should do the decent thing and do what he did to Senator Patterson—demote her—because it is painful to watch. That is what should happen. With Senator Patterson he was prepared to bite the bullet and demote her because she was incompetent. He should do the same to Senator Coonan unless she starts turning up in this chamber properly briefed and properly able to answer questions that are simple and straightforward. (Time expired)