Estimates, Turnbull’s NBN, Scott Briggs, Michaelia Cash and the AWU raids

MURRAY WATT: This week, yet again, we’ve seen how obsessed the Turnbull Government is with looking after themselves at the expense of average Australians. Yesterday, it was revealed in the House of Reps that the Prime Minister and his department intervened to get him superfast broadband at his own mansion at Point Piper. While there are hundreds of thousands and millions of Australia who are still waiting for a basic NBN connection, let alone superfast broadband.

And in Estimates yesterday, and over the last couple of days, we’ve also uncovered a number of instances that show that the Turnbull Government’s priorities is just looking after themselves and their own mates, rather than the average Queenslanders.

On Monday we uncovered that a very close confidant of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer is potentially in line for a $1 billion contract as part of the Government’s efforts to privatise the Government’s VISA processing system. And what makes it even worse is that we can’t get any information about what conflict of interest processes are being put in place by this Government to make sure that their mate isn’t getting a rail’s run.

And yesterday, we got further evidence about the Michaelia Cash scandal, where her office leaked information to the media about a police raid on union offices. What became clear yesterday in asking questions of the AFP is that this investigation has gone well beyond Minister Cash’s office. We’ve been unable up until yesterday to get any answers about whether other Ministers’ offices were involved in this, and what we learned from the Federal Police yesterday is that they are investigating and are interviewing staff from other ministerial office. We’re starting to wonder exactly how high up does this scandal go? Which Ministers does it involve? Does it even involve the Prime Minister’s office?

So, as I say, all week, we’ve found more and more evidence that the Turnbull Government is only about looking after themselves, their mates, and covering up their scandals rather than thinking about what Australians are actually after.

Thanks.