Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The Manager of Opposition Business has abused the standing orders right throughout question time today and will resume his seat. The member for Herbert has the call. The member for Watson will resume his seat.
Honourable members interjecting—
I have asked him to resume his seat. I am sorry, you have had so many abuses of it today. Sit down or leave the chamber under standing order 94(a). Leave under 94(a).
The member for Watson then left the chamber.
The member for Herbert has the call.
Ewen Jones Herbert, Liberal Party
My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister inform the House—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The member for Herbert will resume his seat. I can hardly resist that tie. The member for McMahon.
Chris Bowen McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer
A very fine one! Thank you, Madam Speaker. I raise a point of order. Standing order 100 relates to the rules of questions. There is no provision under standing order 100 which indicates that if the Speaker does not like the question it cannot be asked. There are specific rules. That question did not offend any of the elements of standing order 100.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The member will resume his seat. The Leader of the House.
Christopher Pyne Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House
Madam Speaker, it will assist the opposition if they read standing order 100(d) at any of the roman numerals. They will find that it offends every one of those. It was full of argument, inferences, imputations, insults, ironical expressions and hypothetical matter. You ruled it out quite correctly.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The question was totally disorderly. The member for Herbert has the call.
Ewen Jones Herbert, Liberal Party
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister inform the House of the assistance that the government has given to help the fight against Ebola? Why is a consistent and deliberate approach to this issue important?
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
3:11 pm
Thank you very much to the member for Herbert for his question. He is a very proud North Queenslander and he does us very proud in this place. The government is obviously concerned, as all Australians are, about what is happening in West Africa with people losing their lives to Ebola.
We have provided significant support—$42 million in total—to help people in West Africa. To make sure that we can provide support on the ground we have contracted with the great Australian company Aspen to provide up to $20 million of funding so that in concert with the United Kingdom we can provide a 100-bed facility.
But of course this does not happen by chance. There is a lot of work that must go into these sorts of contracts. We must consider the way that we can deal with Australian health workers if they contract the virus in West Africa. We have to make sure that we have assurances around evacuation. Given that there is a 50 per cent fatality rate for health workers in West Africa, we need to make sure that we can provide those health workers with the health support that they need, if they contract the virus from those whom they are treating. This is absolutely essential, and it would be reckless of any government that sent health workers into harm's way without having properly contemplated how it is that you could put this contract and these operations into place.
We had a number of meetings of the National Security Committee. We took advice from the Chief of Defence. I met on countless occasions with the Chief Medical Officer. We had advice from the head of border protection and security. We spoke with all of those people in the United Kingdom and the United States, our partners abroad, and we came, as a government, to a reasonable position of which we should all be very proud.
But there is a contrast in approach here. This contrast in approach is best evidenced by the member for Sydney. The member for Sydney was a hopeless health minister. She was a hopeless minister for homelessness, and she demonstrated incapacity on this issue—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The Minister for Health will resume his seat.
Tanya Plibersek Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order. Is it appropriate for me to thank the Minister for Health for contrasting me with him?
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The member will resume her seat. This is yet another abuse of the standing orders. I think the opposition needs a whole session on learning how to use the standing orders. The minister has the call.
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will tell you what it reminded me of: the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. People may have a short memory about the incompetence of the former Labor government.
Ms Catherine King Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
Here comes another success story of the Rudd years. I will get onto her in a second.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
I have had enough of the standing orders being abused. This had better be a proper standing order point of order.
Ms Catherine King Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health
Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order: how on earth could this be relevant to the question about the government's response to Ebola?
Ms Catherine King Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health
It is personal abuse.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The member will leave under standing order 94(a).
Mr Conroy interjecting—
The member for Charlton will join her.
The member for Ballarat and the member for Charlton then left the chamber.
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
I will wait for the return of the member for Ballarat before we turn to her failings in the Rudd years.
Madam Speaker, the point I make here is that it does not matter if you look at the Leader of the Opposition or at half of the members on the front bench there; they received their training from Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and they cannot be trusted on the Treasury benches—these people, when you go one by one, starting with the member for Sydney, displayed complete incompetence in government, and they are displaying it in opposition. (Time expired)
Tony Abbott Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.