House debates
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Personal Explanations
3:44 pm
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the member claim to have been misrepresented?
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Most grievously.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
In answering a question today the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs claimed that members of the opposition were against the social security agreements negotiated with various countries around the world. This is absolutely untrue. We are against the government’s stimulus package but we are not against those agreements.
3:45 pm
John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the member claim to have been misrepresented?
John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Most grievously.
John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Earlier today the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry knowingly misrepresented a statement I made in a press release on 10 October last year, in which I called for a massive economic stimulus for the irrigation industry to help productivity and maintain jobs at a time when Australia was heading into recession. I did not, as the minister erroneously and knowingly said, call for a general stimulus such as the government’s $10 billion package and $42 billion package.
3:46 pm
Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Most grievously.
Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
In question time today the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs suggested that I had this morning cast doubt over the efficacy of the 22 social security agreements that we have around the world. In fact, I said that we should have brought forward tax cuts to be spent in Australia rather than paying cash to people overseas who will not spend it in Australia. And, in fact, I helped negotiate the social security agreement with Greece.