Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to his misleading of parliament in a previous answer. Isn't it a fact that the evidence given by the Australian National Audit Office to the Senate committee referred to sections 4.32 and 4.33 of the Audit Office report, which indicate that 272 ineligible projects were funded?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the member has asked me a question in relation to my earlier answer. In my earlier answer I made reference to the audit report findings in relation to the program administered by the member for Grayndler. So let me speak a little to those matters, as he's introduced that into his question. Of that project, it said in the report:

… eligibility and compliance checking process was developed by the department but was abandoned part‐way through its implementation and was not replaced with an alternative …

…   …   …

… projects located in electorates held by the—

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

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker. This is about the misleading of the parliament. The question was clearly about—

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

Yes, the point of order is on?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

relevance—the misleading of the parliament with regard to the ANAO report, sections 4.32 and 4.33.

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

The Leader of the Opposition can resume his seat. I get his gist.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It wasn't about anything else.

Mr Buchholz interjecting—

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

The member for Wright is not helping. This is why I don't like people interjecting, as you saw with the earlier question from the member for Mallee, because it's my job to listen very closely. The Leader of the Opposition was making statements about misleading—that's a very abject term, and if he wanted to pursue that he'd need to pursue that by way of a motion of deliberately misleading, which he well knows. Even asking a question about a minister or a prime minister misleading does open things up. That is quite a claim, and I think it opens things up for a minister or a prime minister to be able to defend themselves—that's the first point—and there's lots of precedent with that.

The other thing I listened to very closely, because I have allowed it, is reference to a previous answer. As I've made clear in previous rulings, that does open the door, but it doesn't open it to an extent—as the member for Isaacs discovered—that you can just, by merely stating that, go to any matter you wish to. But I listened very carefully to the Prime Minister, who said that he would refer to that, on that basis, a little. I've been listening to him, and the Prime Minister's able to do that briefly by way of comparison, but not for the entire answer.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was referring specifically to the report I cited in my earlier answer. In that report it says:

… in one instance, Ministers explicitly decided to waive the project eligibility criteria for an application they wished to fund.

…   …   …

The awarding of funding to projects also disproportionately favoured ALP held seats …

It went on to say:

What I am aware of is that the Leader of the Opposition threw the rule book away when he ran programs for infrastructure grants—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You've misled the parliament.

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

The member for Isaacs!

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

when he was the minister. How dare he come here and throw mud when he's covered in it himself.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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

The member for Isaacs is warned. The reason I said 'briefly', before I call the next question, is the reference to previous answers, as I said—and I probably didn't express it clearly enough—enables ministers and prime ministers to be questioned on matters in previous answers. So the nature of the question did curtail it a little more than is normally the case.