Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the member claim to have been misrepresented?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Disappointingly, the Minister for Health has not worked out that St Vincent's Hospital is not in my electorate.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not correcting the record, but nonetheless the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has made her point.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An article by Chris Johnson and Heath Aston in The Sun-Herald on 8 December made reference to an alleged conversation that took place between me and the chief of staff of the Leader of the Opposition. This is a complete fabrication. It is total fiction. What is more concerning is that that position was advised to The Sun-Herald, prior to publication, while the story was being written. So, if you want to read some lies, read The Sun-Herald.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Madam Speaker: that went well beyond what is allowed during a personal explanation.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will remember that next time the member seeks the same courtesy of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When you believed members of this side had strayed beyond, you pulled them up immediately, and you have not done the same with members of the government.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the contrary. I have no hesitation in doing it to both sides.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Most grievously.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 5 December, the member for Sydney claimed in a speech, 'She—' referring to me and not even knowing the name of my seat—'is not in the Blue Mountains very much, is she?' This speech was then posted on the member's Facebook page. What a gross inaccuracy. During the recent bushfires I have spent every waking hour in my community doing whatever I possibly could—I failed to see the member for Sydney once.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Madam Speaker: I do not see how the final phrase of that personal explanation can be at all consistent with the ruling you gave me a couple of minutes ago.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What was the phrase to which you objected?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, it is a great game to dare me to repeat something I think is inappropriate, but that will not be done.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point I made earlier in the day to you, as Manager of Opposition Business, and to the deputy leader, who is acting leader, was that her comment was not a proper explanation of where she had been misrepresented. To the contrary, what the member for Macquarie was pointing out was: where a statement had been made, where it had been placed and why it was wrong. Clearly, that is the point of having an opportunity for a personal explanation where you claim to have been misrepresented. The member for Sydney, the Acting Leader of the Opposition, should have followed the same form in her explanation as the member for Grayndler, which is always done, absolutely properly, by that member.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The final phrase used by the member had nothing to do with her claim of where she had been personally misrepresented—nothing whatsoever.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will have to take your word for that, because I did not hear anything that was not relevant, and you are not prepared to tell me what it was, so I cannot make any further comment.