Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. I refer to his previous answer in which he confirmed that he had made representations to OzCar on behalf of Mr John Grant, a car dealer seeking finance from that taxpayer special purpose vehicle. I ask the Treasurer: were there any discussions or communications between the office of the Treasurer and the office of the Prime Minister—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is not in order for the Leader of the Opposition to verbal the Treasurer on the basis of his previous answer. I would ask you to get him to rephrase the question.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Whilst the member for Fadden has got the book out, he might read 65(b). I think that these situations are best handled by the response to the question. I have the difficulty of then adjudicating on interpretations of answers. Whilst I understand the point that is being made by the Leader of the House that the question is based on the perception of the previous answer by the Treasurer, in the case where the Treasurer will have the opportunity in his answer to correct any misinterpretation, I am happy to allow the question. But I note that today we should be very careful with the amount of debate that is put into questions.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I refer to the Treasurer’s previous answer in which he confirmed that his office had made a representation to OzCar on behalf of Mr John Grant’s car dealership. I ask the Treasurer: were there any discussions or communications regarding Mr John Grant’s interest in seeking finance from OzCar between himself and the Prime Minister or between their respective offices?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said before, there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in members of parliament making representations on behalf of constituents to ministers’ offices. There is nothing out of the ordinary in that at all. This occurred quite a bit around the time that many of these car dealerships looked to be in trouble and were not able to secure finance. So certainly there were numerous representations made to my office by members of parliament on behalf of car dealers. There will be members on the other side over there and over there who made those representations. Secondly, there is absolutely nothing unusual for those representations to be then passed on to the department.

I can say I have had no discussions with the Prime Minister about this matter whatsoever—none whatsoever. I am happy to look at what communications have taken place between my office and other offices. I am happy to do that, and I am sure there were a number of communications between my office and many over there and many over there. But, in the case of the Prime Minister and me, there were none.