House debates

Thursday, 16 February 2012

Motions

Prime Minister; Censure

3:01 pm

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

I seek leave to move:

That this House censures the Prime Minister for presiding over a government that is paralysed by dysfunction and division and is now incapable of addressing the daily challenges facing the Australian people and secondly for the culture of evasion, deceit and sheer incompetence that characterizes her Prime Ministership.

Leave not granted.

In that event, I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving the following motion forthwith:

That this House censures the Prime Minister for presiding over a government that is paralysed by dysfunction and division and is now incapable of addressing the daily challenges facing the Australian people and secondly for the culture of evasion, deceit and sheer incompetence that characterizes her Prime Ministership.

Standing orders should be suspended and a motion of censure of the Prime Minister should be debated as this Prime Minister has already been given every opportunity to end the evasion, shiftiness and malevolence and to start the truth telling she so often talks about. In spite of being given the opportunity to do just that, the Prime Minister has again scurried from the chamber into the chief government whip's office for her afternoon cup of tea and Mint Slice because she cannot bear to stay in the chamber and face the truth that her government is in tatters, her reputation is falling apart and her alibi is crumbling.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will return to the substance of the motion, which is a motion to suspend—

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

That is why—

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member will not talk while I am talking. It is a motion to suspend standing and sessional orders and the honourable member will direct his attention to what he has moved.

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

That is why this matter should take precedence over all other business on the agenda today. Standing orders must be suspended to give this matter precedence, because the people have waited to find out when the evasion will end and the truth telling begin. The answer we can give them is never. The Prime Minister is like a bug that twists and turns to break free from the web in which it is ensnared but eventually proves incapable of doing so and simply expires.

The words of Oliver Cromwell apply as much to this government today as they did when he said them to another parliament centuries ago.

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

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I ask you to bring the Manager of Opposition Business back to order, as I was on six occasions yesterday.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

It is up to me to enforce the standing orders. I try to enforce them without fear or favour. The Manager of Opposition Business will direct himself to the substance of the motion that he has moved. He does some of the time but then he deviates somewhat, so he will return to the motion.

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

That is right, Mr Speaker. You are correct. Precedence should be given to this motion. I am explaining why this motion is more important than any other business before the House. It is because, in the words of Oliver Cromwell 359 years ago, which apply as much to this government today as they then did, 'You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.' That is what the Australian people want this government to do—go.

The proposed censure motion is the most pressing matter before the House and for that reason standing orders must be suspended to facilitate this debate, because this Prime Minister has traduced and debased the office. She should no longer be tolerated by her party. The Prime Minister came to the office steeped in deceit. Laurie Oakes first exposed it at the National Press Club the week before the election when he asked her if it were true that she had done a deal with the former Prime Minister to leave him in office while her henchmen rounded up the numbers. We had the pitiful story of the Leader of the House breaking into the room where the now foreign minister but then Prime Minister was sitting and saying, 'She's doing you over. Don't you know what's going on?' The poor former Prime Minister said to the Leader of the House, 'Don't worry, mate. We've done a deal. It's all right,' and the Leader of the House said, 'No, she is doing you in.'

The reason standing orders should be suspended and this matter should be given precedence is that the information continues to roll out about the dysfunction and the division at the centre of this government, and the soft underbelly of the Prime Minister's alibis and stories about how she came to leadership were exposed dramatically on the Four Corners program on Monday night. We now know that her office was drafting a victory speech two weeks before the leadership change. We know that the ambassador to the United States was called in by the Secretary of State two weeks before the event to ask if things would change under the new leadership, and we know that the Prime Minister in the two weeks before she became the Prime Minister was using secret UMR polling to convince her colleagues that the leadership should be changed. But, incredibly, we are supposed to believe that on the day of the challenge this all came as a complete surprise to the Prime Minister. Standing orders should be suspended and this matter should be given precedence because the Prime Minister gained her office through disloyalty and deceit, and she is going to lose it the same way. The Prime Minister presides over three Labor Parties: the Gillard party, the Rudd party and the anyone else party. Whoever emerges as leader, the blood feud will not end. We know that this week the Minister for Trade has been visiting office after office with a list of numbers, trying to show members that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has no more than 30 votes—on behalf of Bill Ludwig, the union leader from Queensland. The Rudd camp, of course, have been calling him the equivalent of 'Chemical Ali', from the days of the Iraq War.

So dysfunctional are they that standing orders should be suspended and this motion should be given precedence, so the Prime Minister can defend herself from the charge that her leadership was infected from the beginning and that the Labor Party, like dealing with a gangrenous wound, is now moving to excise the sick limb. This is the Prime Minister who has built her leadership on deceit and deception—the citizens' assembly, gambling reform, means-testing the private health insurance rebate, the East Timor processing centre, hospital reform, cash for clunkers, the open and transparent government, and, the jackpot of all of them, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.'

So of course this matter should be given precedence over all the matters on the agenda today. Standing orders should be suspended because the full hideousness of how much the Prime Minister has debauched her office can be seen in her handling of the controversy surrounding the member for Dobell and the cover-up of the role of her office in the Australia Day riots. In both matters, she has been evasive, shifty and malevolent, to use the words of John McTernan, her new head of communications, about the three things she should not be. The Prime Minister has been asked 36 questions about the Fair Work Australia investigation and 18 questions about the role of her office in the Australia Day riot. It is a matter of record that she has answered none of them.

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

That is why precedence should be given to this suspension of standing orders motion.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

However, this is a motion to suspend standing and sessional orders, not a motion of censure, so the Manager of Opposition Business will therefore withdraw the accusation he made of the Prime Minister that she was steeped in deceit. That is disorderly.

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

I withdraw, Mr Speaker, and I thank you for your guidance.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Also, 'malevolent' will have to be withdrawn.

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

I withdraw 'malevolent'. The reason why this motion should be given precedence is that the office of Prime Minister is the most important office in politics in Australia. It is the most important office and it is being debased by this Prime Minister's handling of the Craig Thomson affair and it is being debased by her handling of the role of her office in the Australia Day riots. The caucus, the parliament and the people know that this Prime Minister is simply swinging in the breeze and that the member for Griffith is waiting for his time to cut her down. The Australian people deserve better than that. The Australian people deserve a good and honest government.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will return to the subject of the motion.

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

And that is why this suspension of standing orders should be given precedence, because nothing is more important than debating the honesty and integrity of the Prime Minister.

In terms of the Australia Day riots—let me finish with this—yesterday the Prime Minister spoke honeyed words in this place about good intentions and commitments when it came to looking after Indigenous people, with the Closing the gap report. So how could her office so maliciously and amorally be prepared to manufacture a riot among the Aboriginal people at the Aboriginal tent embassy protest? Even the Aboriginal tent embassy protesters themselves have described their feelings of being used to gain political mileage. On the one hand, the Prime Minister clothed herself in the good intentions to address Indigenous disadvantage; on the other, her office conspired to use the tent embassy protesters to gain political mileage against the Leader of the Opposition. They stand condemned, and the Prime Minister has at no point dealt with this matter or the matter to do with Fair Work Australia. The prime ministership is in tatters, debased and traduced. (Time expired)

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

3:12 pm

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to second this important motion. It must be dealt with now. I think there is not a person in this building, be they amongst our colleagues, be they on the opposite side, be they in the press gallery or be they in the general gallery, who does not know what is going on. We have seen over the last fortnight the calcification of the aorta of the Australian government. It goes to the heart of what is going on. Confidence is being undermined amongst the general public because this government is not getting on with the job. It can pass bills through this place but, out there, Australians are looking with bewilderment at the antics of the government in this case. They are looking at the government with bewilderment because the government is dysfunctional. We must suspend standing orders now and have the matter dealt with. The Prime Minister has to rebuild confidence and trust with the Australian people.

Jerry Seinfeld said there is no such thing as a day of fun for the whole family. Today we have seen the dysfunctionality of the whole family over there. We have seen the parade of roosters. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations came up and gave us a parade for question time. We saw the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government come up and give us a little parade for question time.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The honourable member will return to the substance of the motion.

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

This is why we must suspend standing orders now. They are wasting the time of the parliament parading for the leadership in what is effectively a primary for the prime ministership, rather than focusing on the best interests of the Australian people. The deceit that the government is engaging in is infecting all of their words—even yesterday, when the Treasurer got up and said that the private health insurance cuts were in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Well, none of us could find it specifically identified in that document. But that is the way of the Treasurer, because he is infected with the same disease as the Prime Minister, the lying disease, and it has infected every single part of this government, whether it be on Australia Day

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The member will withdraw.

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

I will withdraw, Mr Speaker. The government has given us broken words on private health insurance, broken words on the carbon tax and broken words in relation to a deal on poker machines, but it has given us unbelievable words on Australia Day, on leadership speeches and on polling matters that go to the heart of the integrity of the Prime Minister. We all know—that is, the Australian people all know—that something is going to happen within the government to bring down the Prime Minister.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member will return to the substance of the motion.

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

The problem is it is affecting the way this parliament is operating. It is affecting the confidence of the Australian people, so it must be dealt with now. All other matters before this House are, for this moment, insignificant until the matter of the leadership of the Labor Party is dealt with. It must be dealt with because Australians are sick and tired of a dysfunctional government. They are tired. They are bewildered at how a government could be so dysfunctional, so incoherent and so untruthful. The bond of trust between a Prime Minister and the people is sacred, and this Prime Minister on numerous occasions had broken that—

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The honourable member will withdraw the term 'untruthful'.

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I withdraw. The bond of trust between the Australian people and their Prime Minister and their government is sacred. Because it is sacred, when that bond is broken Australia reflects that broken trust.

Mr Husic interjecting

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The honourable member for Chifley will remove himself from the chamber under the provisions of standing order 94(a).

The member for Chifley then left the chamber.

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

Therefore, it is now time for the Prime Minister to come clean with the Australian people. More particularly, it is time for the Labor Party to come clean with the Australian people. No more deals. We know the deals that are going on. We know there was a reshuffle because the minister for employment called on the Prime Minister to put her in cabinet. We know that Senator Arbib was left out and is now negotiating to have the minister for employment become the next Treasurer under Kevin Rudd. We know these things are happening. Now is the time to get good government back in Australia. Get this Prime Minister on her feet and get this matter resolved. (Time expired)

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I remind the honourable member for North Sydney that he ought to refer to the Minister for Foreign Affairs by his title.

3:17 pm

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

I rise to speak to the 40th suspension motion moved by those opposite in the 43rd Parliament. Every single day they come into this chamber and they move a suspension of standing orders that allows them to stand up and heckle, explain their negativity, hector and not put forward anything positive whatsoever. They do not participate in the constructive debates. They do not take the opportunity that question time provides to try to hold the executive to account. They simply stall for time until they can give their preprepared suspension motion, typed out in the morning and moved in the afternoon—day after day after day.

What are the consequences if we suspend standing orders? The consequences are that we will knock off the discussion of the matter of public importance from the member for Throsby, which is about jobs, employment, the economy and the manufacturing sector. The member for Throsby cares about jobs and the economy. All those opposite care about is one thing—being able to go from a shadow minister to a minister and from Leader of the Opposition to Prime Minister. That is their only concern. The only job that this man sitting here is concerned about is the position of Prime Minister. He does anything at all—there are no limits to what those opposite are prepared to do—to try to drag down the economy.

Today, on a day when we have more Australians in work than at any time in our history, we hear nothing from those opposite. The only people disappointed by today's employment figures are those opposite. There were 46,300 jobs in January—

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will return to the motion before the chair.

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

These are the issues that we should be discussing. These are the issues that Australians should be concerned about, and that is why we should reject this suspension motion. The fact is that unemployment has fallen to 5.1 per cent. I heard a prediction this morning on the radio that it would go up. That was the prediction—that is what those opposite were hoping for—yet today we have outstanding figures. It is the largest monthly employment increase in over 12 months. But it is not surprising. We on this side of the House want to discuss the economy. We want to discuss jobs. We want to discuss the future. We want to discuss hope. All those opposite want to discuss is fear, driving everything down. Those are their only concerns—fear and scare campaigns.

Today we had the question of Qantas. Any loss of a job is one too many, but Qantas's changes are in its heavy maintenance, which is to do with its international fleet and what is happening with the 747s. Its international fleet is not subject to a carbon price. Of course, we know the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations when Ansett collapsed and 15,000 Australians lost their jobs. That is what he presided over. It is little wonder that those opposite want to avoid a discussion about jobs on a head-to-head basis. It is of little surprise.

In the parliament this week we have had important debates. We have had the legislation to make fairer private health insurance carried by this parliament. Today we had legislation on the ABCC, restoring fairness to the workplace. They were opposed by those opposite, like everything else has been opposed. Mr Speaker, 269 pieces of legislation have passed this parliament in spite of the relentless opposition of those opposite and in spite of the fact that they come in here and move suspension motion after suspension motion. The shadow Treasurer actually had the hide to stand up during his contribution to this debate and say, 'They can pass bills through this place.' That is what he said, as if to say 'big deal'. The fact is that we are getting on with important legislation—15 pieces of legislation in the last fortnight, including as I have said changes to make sure that working Australians do not pay for health insurance of politicians and changes delivering on our commitment to have a fair but tough cop on the beat in the construction sector.

The fact is that there are choices to be made. There is the choice to be made between standing still and getting ready for the future.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will return to the motion.

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

There are choices to be made between making changes that are better for us and putting off the hard decisions. These are the issues that we want to discuss in this parliament. There are choices between building the future economy and dealing with the $70 billion black hole that those opposite have in their budget costings. This week we saw the debate before this parliament on the PHI legislation, which was resisted by those opposite, who say they will restore it in office when they can. The Australian resources sector, as the Minister for Resources and Energy knows, is pretty innovative. But I tell you, the biggest hole in Australia is not at Olympic Dam; it is in the costings of those opposite.

We have choices to make and we want to discuss them. We have choices between helping families make ends meet and clawing back tax cuts. We have choices about whether you deliver tax bonuses to Gina Reinhart and to the other mates they have at the top end of town. They are the issues that we want to discuss. I know that the shadow Treasurer would rather discuss defending the interests of Clive Palmer, but that is not the position that we on this side of the House hold.

There are choices to be made between managing the economy for working people and letting it run for the benefit of a select few. There is a fundamental choice between enhancing opportunity and entrenching privilege. Those are the issues that we want to discuss. Those opposite just want to get down in the gutter and discuss personalities. They themselves said that they had asked 54 questions of the Prime Minister—their questions were essentially about issues that are of no concern to the Australian people or their future. Today their lack of discipline was on display. Not only were they interjecting from the front bench and the back bench; they were interjecting from the advisers box. When the appropriateness of having an adviser in the advisers box heckling across the chamber was raised with you, Mr Speaker, they interjected at the person raising the point of order. No wonder there is such concern on their front bench about some of the structures that have been put in place by the Leader of the Opposition.

The Prime Minister nailed the answer completely when they were so silly as to come in and suggest that the issue of contacting the leader's office over media was something unique to the Labor Party. That says it all. Fundamentally, we say day after day that those opposite believe that they were born with a right to rule. They think that the prime ministership was stolen from them after the last election, because of their incapacity to negotiate with people.

Photo of Craig EmersonCraig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | | Hansard source

And their born-to-rule mentality.

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

They have a born-to-rule mentality. Ever since then we have been suffering from the longest dummy spit in Australian political history. We know that the Leader of the Opposition has modelled himself on Barry Goldwater. We know that, because they use the same beginning for their speeches: 'I will offer a choice, not an echo.'

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will return to the motion.

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

Those are the issues that we should discuss, because, as the critique of Barry Goldwater said, 'In your guts, you know he's nuts.' That is what Australians know about the challenges that are before us. That is why we should have serious discussion in this House and not this suspension of standing orders. (Time expired)

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

I did not want to interrupt the Leader of the House, unlike the interruptions that I faced.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I am sure the Leader of the House appreciates your consideration.

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

My point of order is this: it is highly offensive for the Leader of the House to cast a slur over people with a mental illness, which is what he did in using the phrase he used. It is a slur. As a former parliamentary secretary and then minister for mental illness in the Howard government I find it to be tremendously offensive. I ask you to ask him to withdraw it and not use it again in the future.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The question before the chair is that the motion be agreed to. I will put that question.

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

I asked you to ask him to withdraw it. To describe somebody as 'nuts' is unparliamentary.

Photo of Peter SlipperPeter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. Whether what the Leader of the House said was desirable, it was not unparliamentary. The question is that the motion to suspend standing and sessional orders moved by the member for Sturt be agreed to.