Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a matter of privilege under standing order 51. During question time on Thursday 12 May, in answer to a question from the member for Banks, the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing made the following statement:

The opposition has been out there suggesting, among other things, that this $2.2 billion is back ended. It is natural, of course, that transformative reform will involve an element of scaling up, but the parliament should be very clear that the two biggest injections of new money in this package are in year 1 and year 2, and the new money in year 5, out of the $2.2 billion, is just $50 million, about two per cent of the total package.

The budget document Delivering better hospitals, mental health and health services, on page 24, provides a table of programs and spending for new budget initiatives. That table shows that in year 1—

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

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. This is clearly not a matter of privilege. This is a matter where the shadow minister is engaging in political debate.

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

The Leader of the House will resume his seat. I am listening carefully to the member for Dickson. He has indicated to me that he wishes to raise a matter under standing order 51. I will listen to the matter, on which I hope his presentation to me is not going to go on much further but that he will provide material that I can look at.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That table shows that in year 1 $47 million is new spending and in year 2 $210 million is new spending. The table also indicates that the biggest injection of new funding occurs in year 5—that is outside the budget estimates—and amounts to $490 million. Quite clearly, the proposed spending on mental health in this budget is back-ended into years 4 and 5—

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

Order! The member will not debate it but will indicate the matter he wishes to put before me.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Certainly, Mr Speaker. Further, to establish the prima facie case, clearly there is no mix-up of figures. The minister stated clearly 'the parliament should be very clear' on what he was saying. The Manager of Opposition Business raised this matter in the House last Thursday and asked the minister to correct the record. The minister refused to do so. I submit that the minister has deliberately set out to mislead this House and the Australian people on what has been portrayed as a cornerstone of this budget, and this matter should be referred to the Privileges Committee. Mr Speaker, I table for your consideration the government's own document, which details the fact that this is back-end loaded and that the minister misrepresented, and I seek also to table a copy of the Hansard which details the minister's quote.

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

You don't table Hansard.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks for your help!

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

Order! I will look at this matter and report back at the earliest opportunity—sorry; there is a point of order.

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

Mr Speaker, I have a submission on that matter that has been put forward by the shadow minister. The government was aware of this issue because the opposition have been trying to hawk a story around the media in the past week and have been unsuccessful and therefore have come in here and tried to use the issue of privilege—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker—

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

I am making my submission; sit down.

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

Order! Both of you will sit down or you will be invited to leave the chamber as a job lot. Often I am accused of ruining the theatre of this place, but this is a farce. The best way for me to deal with this is to minimise the discussion and debate on it, and I was willing to do that. If accusations of deliberate misrepresentation are contained in this matter, that should have been addressed in a motion. But I am willing to take the material away, the only purpose being to examine it—because I wish to minimise the argy-bargy that it appears people want to enter into. I was aware of some proposed proceedings later in the week, on Thursday. I have not bothered to review those, but everybody should be very careful about how these very important aspects of parliamentary procedure are used. That is my final statement on this.