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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that the government has relied on its one-vote majority to block a royal commission into the banks and to block amendments to legislation which would have stopped nearly 700,000 Australians from having their penalty rates cut? There is now doubt over whether the Deputy Prime Minister is constitutionally qualified to sit as a member of parliament and exercise a vote in this House. Will the government now rule out accepting the Deputy Prime Minister's vote in this House while his constitutional qualifications are in doubt?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the reasons I have described earlier, the government is satisfied that the member for New England is qualified to sit in this House. Based on the advice that we have received, we are very confident indeed that this will be confirmed in the High Court. I repeat: we did not refer this matter to the court because of any doubt about the member for New England's position, but because of the need, plainly, in the public interest, to give the court the opportunity to clarify the operation of this section, which is so important to the operation of our parliament.