Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I simply ask you to reflect on a precedent that was set on 31 October 2000. If you hear the words in the question that then opposition leader Kim Beazley asked then Prime Minister John Howard, it is almost identical to what has just been put. The question was:

My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that Western Australian Liberal Premier Richard Court has left open the possibility of the Liberal Party preferencing One Nation at the forthcoming Western Australian state election? Will the Prime Minister advise Premier Court to adopt the same position that the Prime Minister reluctantly adopted at the 1998 federal election—namely, to put One Nation last in every seat?

The question is almost identical—

Government members interjecting—

That is true, the Premier's name is not Richard Court anymore! Other than that, if it was good enough for John Howard to answer, this Prime Minister should answer it as well.

Honourable members interjecting—

See this speech in context