Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Last time this parliament sat the Prime Minister claimed in question time:

… the Deputy Prime Minister is qualified to sit in this House, and the High Court will so hold.

On what basis did the Prime Minister make this claim?

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

Mr Speaker, I have answered this question on many occasions now, and the basis of our confidence, our very strong confidence, in the High Court holding that the Deputy Prime Minister—and, indeed, Senators Canavan and Nash—being held to be qualified to sit in the House and the Senate is plainly based on advice from the Solicitor-General. We hold that confidence very, very strongly indeed.

The last thing we want to get into, perhaps, is a debate about legal opinions. But I would say this: there is one opinion that every Australian has and that is that the Leader of the Opposition cannot be trusted. The one thing we know is that he claims to have renounced his UK citizenship. Where's the proof? Where's the evidence? He won't show it. All he has to do is produce a piece of paper—that's all he's got to do. What is he trying to cover up? We don't know if it is his situation or is it others? He can table it right now. We won't object. The Leader of the House gives me an assurance that he won't object to it being tabled. Whether it is on trading away workers' penalty rates or what about trading them away so that they have to work for almost another week to make up for what they have lost, the reality is that the Leader of the Opposition is not fair dinkum. He's had a test. He could have put the paper on the table and everyone would know, but he's failed that test. The question Australians are asking is, 'What has he got to hide?'