Senator FAULKNER (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (3:07 PM) —I move:

Mr Howard is the only Prime Minister of Australia ever to have embroiled our intelligence agencies in domestic political debate. No other Prime Minister has ever done that. No other Prime Minister in memory would even have considered that such a course of action would be appropriate. These private confidential briefings of the Leader of the Opposition by senior intelligence officials are a longstanding convention. In the case of ASIS and ASIO, they are underpinned by legislation. For example, section 19 of the Intelligence Services Act requires the Director-General of ASIS to consult regularly with the Leader of the Opposition for the purpose of keeping him or her informed of matters relating to ASIS. By bringing these briefings into the public domain the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, has compromised their value. Why would officials give full and frank briefings in future, knowing they may well be made public, whenever they might serve the supposedly partisan interests of the government?

Will leaders of the opposition continue to seek such briefings, knowing that their privacy and their confidentiality may not be respected by government? Is the public interest served by the politicisation and corruption of this very important convention that has, until now, stood the test of time? But does the Prime Minister, ostensibly in our system the guardian of these conventions, care about these matters? He does not care. He coerces public servants in this country into supporting the government line, and that is now a familiar tactic of Mr Howard and the government.

The Prime Minister has extracted a letter from the deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has extracted a letter from the Secretary of the Department of Defence. He has extracted a letter from the Director-General of ASIS. He has another one from the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defence. Poor Mr Bonighton. He is probably on the rack right now as we speak—on the rack again.

Senator FAULKNER —No doubt the Prime Minister will get Mr Bonighton to sign up to an even more fulsome description of his briefing with Mr Latham. The last one did not quite do the trick. The Prime Minister today has run away, with his tail between his legs, licking his wounds, because he has been bested by Mr Latham in the parliament on this issue. The Prime Minister is wrong. Remember, this is the same Prime Minister who used classified intelligence to try to back up his claim that kids had been thrown overboard. He is the same Prime Minister who used the Office of National Assessments to dig himself out of a hole on WMDs—we all know about that. It is the same Prime Minister who demanded retractions from Vice Admiral Shackleton. It is the same Prime Minister who stood over Police Commissioner Keelty. Of course, all these people departed from the government line, even though they told the truth to the Australian people. The modus operandi of the government is to use public servants and to use classified information for partisan political purposes. How low can you go?

That is the hallmark of the Howard government, and there is only one way to stop it: to remove John Howard from the prime ministership. He is a person who will not change his spots. This is a pattern of behaviour that is utterly despicable, utterly contemptible. He has indulged in this destructive behaviour far too often. Until John Howard is removed from office, he will continue to abuse these longstanding conventions. What this says, of course is that the sooner he is gone the better. (Time expired)

Senator Robert Ray —Mr Deputy President, I rise on a point of order. I did not want to interrupt my leader when he was so destroying the government, but Senator Brandis on two occasions was deliberately and maliciously unparliamentary. Given the homily read out by the President, I think he should withdraw. He knows he should, and he should do it now.

Senator Brandis —I withdraw.