House debates Questions without Notice

Government Procurement

Wednesday, 20 February 2019 House of Representatives

Jim Chalmers

Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)

2:58 pm

My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister confident that trips like the one by the Minister for Home Affairs and Joe Hockey with Helloworld CEO and Liberal Treasurer Mr Andrew Burnes to Las Vegas were paid at the full commercial rate?

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister

Again the member comes here and just makes assertions and then he asks me to respond as if those assertions are true.

Mike Kelly

Mike Kelly Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support

How dare he ask a question!

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister

It's said to me, 'How dare he ask a question!' He's not asking a question; he's making an assertion about something he hasn't even established as a fact. On that basis, I don't agree necessarily with the presumption of the question, and, therefore, on what basis should I allow a member to simply come to the despatch box and cast aspersions on people in this chamber, people in the other chamber and former members of the chamber simply because the Labor Party wants to distract attention from the fact that they've come into this place and undermined Australia's border protection regime? We know because they've been boasting around the media for some time that they have had this little issue for some time in the drawer and, when the pressure's on, they pull it out. I think the public can see this for what it is: it's just smear.