Harry Jenkins Speaker
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Wilson Tuckey O'Connor, Liberal Party
Mr Speaker, today in the parliament the Treasurer referred specifically to my comments made today in our party room on the ETS issue. In so doing, he referred to me as a carbon sceptic and a denier of climate change. My contribution in the party room was to criticise the ETS legislation for its failure to address the problem of climate change, reminding those present that it proposes to sell or gift to large emitters certificates to allow them to continue polluting and to pass the cost on to captive markets such as domestic and small business consumers of energy products, and consequently it plans only to achieve a five per cent emission reduction by 2020, when the Barrier Reef scientists who addressed Labor MPs this morning said 20 per cent worldwide is the required target.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Order! The member for O’Connor will not debate his personal explanation.
Wilson Tuckey O'Connor, Liberal Party
Mr Speaker, I have not told them everything I said. The rest is pretty good!
Harry Jenkins Speaker
I think that the member for O’Connor, to the extent that he needed to make a point, has made his point.
Daryl Melham Banks, Australian Labor Party
How do you remember, with dementia!
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Order! I will use the member for Banks’s behaviour at the moment as an illustration that it is not helpful for people in prosecuting whatever case they want to prosecute when they ask questions or make points of order and then just go into argy-bargy across the table.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
If the member for Banks said something, he said it at the same time that I was saying something. If he said something that caused offence, I ask him to withdraw.
Daryl Melham Banks, Australian Labor Party
Mr Speaker, I withdraw unconditionally.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
And I ask the member for Mayo to withdraw his comment.
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing
Now you be a man, Albo.
Jason Wood La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security
Mr Wood interjecting
Harry Jenkins Speaker
The Leader of the House will resume his seat. The member for La Trobe will withdraw.
Jason Wood La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security
I withdraw.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House
3:31 pm
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to make a personal explanation.
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Opposition Members:
Opposition members interjecting—
Harry Jenkins Speaker
And that is within his rights. I am not sure what was released into the atmosphere after question time, but it has certainly changed the mood of the House. Does the Leader of the House claim to have been misrepresented?
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House
Yes. The Manager of Opposition Business, in his abuse of parliamentary processes by putting forward a question, attempted to put on the record an interjection that I did not make.
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Opposition Members:
Opposition members interjecting—
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Order! Whilst I was happy to have an early mark, I am going to be patient. I do not understand why these matters cannot be settled quietly. The Leader of the House has the call.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House
Mr Speaker, the interjection that I made across the chamber was, ‘This was a rescue at sea,’ and it was heard by those here. That was my interjection. The abuse of process and the failure of the Leader of the Opposition or the Manager of Opposition Business to have the courage to raise it with me is an outrage.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
The Leader of the House will resume his seat. He has resumed his seat. Is the member for Sturt seeking the call?
Christopher Pyne Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training
I simply make the point, Mr Speaker, that he is not allowed to debate the matter of a personal explanation.
Harry Jenkins Speaker
He has been told to sit down. I warn the member for Sturt, and the basis of the warning is that, repeatedly, when he has a point of order he makes the point of order and then continues to prattle on.
Chris Pearce Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law
Mr Pearce interjecting
Harry Jenkins Speaker
The member for Aston should go back to his contemplation of future endeavours. It is a friendly reminder that he has been very well behaved, and I was surprised.