Labor senators Kristina Keneally, Kim Carr clash over gifts measure

The Labor senators have traded barbs as they debated making it easier for investments and gifts to be searched for.

Labor senator Kristina Keneally. Picture: Kym Smith

Labor senators Kristina Keneally and Kim Carr traded barbs in a heated caucus meeting over whether the party should support making it easier to find out the investments and gifts of politicians.

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Senator Keneally spoke in favour of a proposal in a report handed down by a Senate committee this month, which recommended a new “search function” on an online database for the Register of Senators’ Interests.

Labor Senator Kim Carr. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The committee report said of the proposal: “the search function would enable users to search by senators’ names, by state and party and other keywords, and filter and sort the content”.

In the meeting of Labor senators on Wednesday morning, Victorian Left senator Kim Carr hit back at Senator Keneally and said the measure could leave politicians too exposed. He questioned why Senator Keneally would want to “make journalists’ jobs easier”, according to senators in the meeting.

There was also consternation in the caucus over the policy because it was first suggested by the Greens.

Senator Keneally said it would be beneficial to have more transparency over politicians’ gifts and investments, given the loss of faith the public had in representatives.

“She made the point, given what happened in NSW why wouldn’t we be in favour of more transparency?” a senator said.

One senator quipped over the war of words: “All this was over a search function”.