Senator FURNER (Queensland) (15:09): It is my pleasure to rise this afternoon to respond to questions provided by Minister Bob Carr. Firstly, Australia is a party to a number of international instruments aimed at combating corruption; and certainly, under international anti-corruption efforts, we have demonstrated our agenda, our needs and our commitment to making sure that that is put in place. We are also united in our efforts under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development— Senator Brandis: Mr Deputy President, on a point of order: my motion is to take note of the answer given by Senator Bob Carr to one question—not to other questions, such as those he referred to in his last answer to Senator Singh, but only the question asked of him by Senator Conchetta Fierravanti-Wells, and that question only asked about the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I believe Senator Furner's answer is in order, he is relevant, as the question did go to the United Nations. Senator Furner, I draw your attention to the question, but you are in order and you have the call. Senator FURNER: Thank you, Mr Deputy President; I am certain I was on that path. What astounds me today listening to Senator Brandis, a Queensland senator, is that he would no doubt be aware of corruption. I refer to governments that have been in place in the state of Queensland. Just today I was looking at The Moonlight State, about the Fitzgerald inquiry, which no doubt he would be quite familiar with in terms of what occurred. Senator Brandis: Mr Deputy President, on a point of order. Truly, it is neither directly nor indirectly relevant to the motion to take note of an answer by Senator Carr to a question about the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the role of Senator Carr as Premier of New South Wales to be referring to events that took place in another state, at a different time, involving entirely different people. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Brandis. I do still rule that Senator Furner is within his rights to address the remarks that he is. I draw his attention to the answer given by Senator Carr, and that is what the debate is about. However, the question asked by Senator Fierravanti-Wells did contain matters pertaining to corruption and the United Nations, and in that context I will allow Senator Furner to continue. Senator FURNER: I will be getting to the point of the United Nations Convention against Corruption later, as I alluded to in my opening comments. Senator Brandis must be embarrassed about the conduct of the current Liberal-National state government in Queensland and the degree of corruption they are involved in with respect to their nepotism and scurrilous behaviour in that state. You need only look at the conduct of the current arts minister, Ros Bates; the now dismissed, or retired, housing minister, Dr Flegg; the transport director, Michael Caltabiano; and a whole web of nepotism and corruption that is being created in Queensland as a result of the activities of its current government. No doubt, over time we will see— Senator Fifield: Mr Deputy President, on a point of order: I seek your guidance here. Senator Furner is making quite serious allegations about members of another parliament in Australia. The debate that we are having here is in relation to the questions which were posed to Senator Carr about an international treaty, and it is not entirely clear to me how the matters to which Senator Furner has referred relate to the matter which is the subject of this debate. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Fifield. Before you rose to your feet, I was about to call Senator Furner to order. Senator Furner, whilst I allowed you latitude in relation to the question that was asked in relation to the answer by Senator Carr, you have now strayed into other matters. I draw your attention to the question. We are taking note of the answers given by Senator Carr to a specific question asked by Senator Fierravanti-Wells. Senator FURNER: Thank you, Deputy President. I was using that purely as an example because the inference was made by Senator Brandis about the honourable good member Bob Carr in terms of his period as the Premier of New South Wales. But if they are that precious I will refrain from touching that nerve that hits them so severely when we talk about the current Queensland government and their nepotism and their activities that have been in the media for some time now. It is a concern of the Queensland Liberal-National Party, no doubt, by the degree of defence that has been contributed towards them in this chamber today. The United Nations Convention against Corruption is the first binding global instrument aimed at combatting corruption. We know that. Certainly Senator Brandis would be aware of this with his involvement on the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and the Senate estimates program, which I am involved in as well. We hear from regular departments about their particular activities. It is an area where it has certainly established mechanisms for the prevention and criminalisation of corruption as well as for international cooperation and asset recovery. Today in an inquiry by another committee that I am involved in—the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade—we were actually looking at this particular area as well, with regard to sex slavery and child slavery and with regard to what leads to the corruption and involvement in that sort of activity globally around the world and how, hopefully, we can eliminate that through the assistance of organisations like this, because it is an insidious trade. After you go through the most criminalised activities in the world, those being arms and drugs, third comes the trade of sex exploitation through the human trafficking of people around the world. So I am certain that instruments like the United Nations Convention against Corruption will assist with regard to establishing fair measures to eliminate those sorts of activities around our centre—because we are neighbours to the Asian rim, which is a high trading area of that sort of trade through our region. (Time expired) Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: I rise to speak on Minister Carr's response to my question. As Senator Brandis correctly said, he took no objection to the premise of my question. He was so eager to stand up and reply no that he clearly admitted that the premise of my question—namely, that as Premier of New South Wales he presided over a government riven by corruption, as revealed by the Eddie Obeid scandal—is actually correct. One needs to look at the attitude that Minister Carr, then Premier of New South Wales, had in relation to Eddie Obeid. Let me quote two extracts from The Reluctant Leader,written by Marilyn Dodkin in relation to Bob Carr. The first one is: I wake up yesterday to switch on the 7 am news and hear Brogden saying fisheries Minister Eddie Obeid should stand down while the ICAC investigates a front-page Herald fantasy that he solicited a million-dollar donation to the ALP in exchange for approving the 600 poker machines required for the Bulldogs Oasis development at Liverpool. I ring Obeid. He says it's a total fabrication. By 7.30 am (fast work) I am running on all bulletins rebutting the story. The Obeid story does not take off. Then there is this one: Three right-wingers—Bob Martin, Eddie Obeid and Franca Arena—fought for the last right-wing place in the ministry. Carr voted for Obeid. So that tells its own story. It was interesting to see Franca Arena last week also writing in the papers. She has been absent from writing in the papers recently. She reminded us all that when she was calling for investigation in New South Wales in relation to child abuse we saw the end of her political career in New South Wales. So, has Minister Carr ever stopped, paused to reflect, that had he not promoted, protected and defended Mr Obeid Australia would not now be in a position where its international reputation is at risk of being stained by the activities of this scandal in New South Wales which, as Senator Brandis correctly points out, is one of the worst examples of corruption that this country has ever seen? But wait, there is more. I am sure that this ICAC inquiry is going to reveal much, much more. I think what we have seen is only the tip of the iceberg. Let us not forget about Sussex Street. I see Senator Thistlethwaite over there, and I am looking forward to hearing what Senator Thistlethwaite is going to tell us about the New South Wales right. Perhaps he might share some information he knows about Eddie Obeid and some of his dealings and the dealings of the Terrigals in New South Wales. Perhaps he has something to contribute to this debate. When you look at what has happened in New South Wales you definitely see that Eddie Obeid was a protected species. Time precludes me from trawling through the many examples in the New South Wales parliament when Minister Carr was the Premier where questions were raised about scandal after scandal involving Eddie Obeid. And do you know what? Very few questions were directly answered. When it was in relation to Mr Obeid, for example, in September 1999, about pecuniary interest and failure to properly disclose there, all that Premier Carr did was patronise the Leader of the Opposition, Kerry Chikarovski, by basically batting it off and being patronising in telling her that on this occasion he would extend latitude to her. In this current debate, perhaps misogyny might have been reigning supreme at that time, but it is not a convenient excuse as we are seeing it at the moment. Then of course there was, as I said, the Oasis Liverpool development, and the pecuniary interest disclosures, which ultimately ended up showing that Eddie Obeid had made 154 errors in his pecuniary interests since 1991.