Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House of the importance of upholding the noninterference in the domestic political affairs of other nations principle?

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

The Minister for Foreign Affairs will stay in her seat. Members on my left interjected right through that question. I'm going to ask the member to repeat it. If I hear any more interjections from the member for McMahon, like 'incoming', he will be outgoing.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House of the importance of upholding the principle of noninterference in the domestic political affairs of other nations?

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

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

The member for Sydney is warned.

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

The member for McEwen will leave under 94(a).

The member for McEwen then left the chamber.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. Let me be very clear: the Australian Labor Party's conduct in orchestrating for a New Zealand member of the Labour Party to ask a question in the New Zealand parliament designed to undermine the Australian Deputy Prime Minister—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

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

The member for Sydney has been warned. It's her final warning.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

is not only highly improper but is in direct breach of the international obligation for noninterference. Labor have now been well and truly caught out. Senator Penny Wong's chief of staff instigated a situation in which the Labour member of parliament in New Zealand was directed to ask questions about the Deputy Prime Minister, and the member for Grayndler let the cat out of the bag today when he said on morning radio that the Deputy Prime Minister's name was raised in the conversation. Of course, he's been monstered now, but he let the cat out of the bag.

That means that the Labor Party are misleading the Australian people, and New Zealand Labour, no less, have judged what they were asked to do by the Australian Labor Party as inappropriate, unacceptable and wrong and should not have happened. The Labor Party have also misled the Australian people by claiming that it was only questions from Fairfax Media to the New Zealand government that sparked this incident. Not so, according to the foreign minister of New Zealand, who has said that it was in fact the questions from the New Zealand Labour member, at the instigation of Labor, that sparked the entire incident. As the New Zealand media are reporting, the New Zealand government is under no obligation to answer questions from the Australian media. But as soon as those questions were put on notice in the New Zealand parliament, the New Zealand government had a legal obligation to answer.

So, the Australian Labor Party set up the New Zealand government. As Prime Minister Bill English said, these are serious issues, and there were significant misjudgements by the New Zealand Labour Party about urging them to interfere in the Australian political process. As the New Zealand foreign minister said, 'This is extraordinary, unprecedented behaviour to seek to invoke the New Zealand parliament,' and as New Zealand Labour have condemned Labor in Australia—unacceptable, inappropriate, wrong behaviour. It should never have happened. Labor stands condemned.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The members for Solomon, Newcastle, Gellibrand and Lindsay, and I mentioned numerous others, will cease interjecting or they will leave the chamber rapidly. Question time is for the parliament and for the public. I won't tolerate a wall of noise through the answers of ministers.

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

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the Minister for Foreign Affairs please tell the House some more about the evil, treacherous treasonous international conspiracy that she has exposed in this House time and again?

Dr Mike Kelly interjecting—

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

The Minister for Foreign Affairs will resume her seat. The member for Eden-Monaro can leave under 94(a).

The member for Eden-Monaro then left the chamber.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has the call.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The hubris of the Australian Labor Party on this issue is extraordinary. Apparently the Labor Party believe that they are above the law. There's one rule for the Labor Party and one rule for the rest of Australia. Craig Thomson was allowed to sit in this parliament when he was in clear breach of the law. The Leader of the Opposition condones the lawlessness of his unions. The Labor Party have breached the most fundamental international principle, and they laugh about it?

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

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

The member for Ballarat is warned.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister Bill English said in the New Zealand parliament yesterday that these were serious issues, where the Labor Party had set up the New Zealand Labour Party to undertake a series of actions that the Labour Party in New Zealand have now admitted were wrong, inappropriate, unacceptable, and should not have happened, and it was all at the behest of the Australian Labor Party, who stop at nothing, will trash any principle, trash any promise, trash any element of decency in order to gain a political advantage.

This is a significant and serious issue, as the New Zealand Prime Minister has pointed out. And, for Labor to find it amusing that Senator Wong, who holds herself out to be the shadow minister for foreign affairs, would direct her chief of staff to contact a sitting member of another parliament to use another parliament as a platform to launch an attack on the Australian Deputy Prime Minister is an utter disgrace! The New Zealand foreign minister was asked whether he thought I was correct in raising this issue, and the New Zealand foreign minister said, 'It's a perfectly reasonable reaction, given the fact that a New Zealand member of parliament from the New Zealand Labour Party, under influence from the Australian Labor Party, is asking questions clearly designed to remove a government member in Australia. That is the bigger problem here.'

It behoves the Labor Party not at all well for them to trivialise what is a serious issue. The New Zealand Prime Minister says it's a serious issue and the New Zealand foreign minister says it's a serious issue. The New Zealand Labour Party are furious that they were conned into unacceptable, inappropriate behaviour that was wrong and should never have happened. Shame, Labor!

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Just before I call the member for Melbourne, whose question it is next, I am not going to keep repeating myself about the level of noise. Members know precisely what they're doing. I will take more severe action if necessary. If members are going to behave in this fashion, frankly, they're snubbing their nose at the parliament, and I'm not going to put up with it.