Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In an extraordinary statement today, Dyson Heydon AC QC not only confirmed that he agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser over a year ago, while he was the head of the Prime Minister's royal commission, but recommitted to the fundraiser in March this year.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will cease interjecting.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister, doesn't this make it clear that this royal commission has been politicised from the start and that Mr Heydon's commission should be withdrawn?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order: the question contains argument portrayed as facts that are factually wrong. It is not possible for the member to pretend that the royal commissioner has said something that he has not said and base his question on a false statement. For that reason, either the question has to be rearranged and come back to, or it needs to be struck out as being outside the standing orders. The statement that has been attributed to the royal commissioner is not factually true.

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Throsby is warned, I remind him.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I made an assertion based on facts and based on the statement by Dyson Heydon himself this morning, and I am willing to table that statement to substantiate the assertion in the question.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yet again, members opposite are seeking to verbal the royal commissioner. In asking that question, the member made a statement about the royal commissioner's statement, which is simply false. In asking that question, he made a statement which is simply false. For the benefit of the member, who may well have just been handed a question that had been drafted by someone else, let me read from the transcript of Commissioner Dyson Heydon's statement earlier today:

The email of the 10th of April—

that is to say, 10 April 2014, the original email—

did not state and I did not understand from it that the Sir Garfield Address was in any sense a fundraiser for the Liberal Party. Mr Swan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley will cease interjecting, especially since he keeps making the same interjection over and over again.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is Dyson Heydon:

The email stated that it was organised by a body which I was told was 'one of the lawyer branches of the Liberal Party New South Wales division, which had a focus on … professional engagement …

So, it was not a fundraiser at all; it was a Liberal Party event organised by one of the lawyer branches of the Liberal Party New South Wales division—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

which had 'a focus on professional engagement'.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga is warned.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has never been disputed that this was a Liberal Party event. The claim of members opposite is that the royal commissioner knowingly accepted an invitation to a Liberal Party fundraiser. That is false. That is a false claim, and the member who asked the question—I presume inadvertently—did in fact mislead this House in the terms of the question he asked.

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

Mr Speaker, a point of order: the Prime Minister quoted from a document; I ask him to table that document.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has a document that is marked 'confidential'. I call the member for Bass.