House debates Questions without Notice
Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
2:52 pm
My question is again to the Prime Minister. Why did his office receive copies of the multiple versions of the colour-coded spreadsheet for the corrupt sports rorts program? Why did Mr Gaetjens rely on just one version of these spreadsheets when the Auditor-General told the Senate there were dozens? Did Mr Gaetjens ignore the other versions of the spreadsheet, or wasn't he ever given them?
Tony Smith Speaker
The Prime Minister has the call. The Leader of the House on a point of order.
Christian Porter Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General
The Prime Minister is obviously responsible for portfolio matters within the prime ministerial role.
Opposition members interjecting—
Tony Smith Speaker
No, hang on! Members on my left will cease interjecting. The member for Spence, I'm actually going to hear the entire point of order. The more you interject, the longer it takes, but I'm telling you I'm going to listen to the point of order. The Leader of the House has the call.
Christian Porter Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General
He can't be responsible for individual email traffic of members of his department nor would he be expected to know about those things.
Mr Husic interjecting—
Tony Smith Speaker
The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order. The member for Chifley is warned.
Mr Tony Burke Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts
Thanks, Speaker. If what the Leader of the House has put forward is true, then it means you can't ask the Prime Minister about an inquiry that he instigated—
An opposition member: With the head of his department!
that was run by the head of his own department, the department called 'Prime Minister and Cabinet', and you can't then ask about whether documents were provided to that person, by the Prime Minister, who set it up—and it was being run by the head of his own department. If this is not in order, I'm not sure what's left.
Tony Smith Speaker
Yes, I'd just say to the Leader of the House: the question's quite in order, and the Prime Minister has the opportunity to answer it. Whether he has knowledge of some things or others, he has the opportunity to answer it or to seek further information. But the question's certainly in order.
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
2:55 pm
In initiating that inquiry by the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet—
Mr Champion interjecting—
Tony Smith Speaker
The member for Spence will leave the House.
The member for Spence then left the chamber.
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
which was done promptly after the release of the Auditor-General's report, the head of the PM&C had access to whatever document he required—as would be appropriate, because it was a serious inquiry. And I note that the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet was able to have whatever document he sought, to conduct those inquiries—
Opposition members interjecting—
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
and the Prime Minister's Office complied with all requests of the secretary. What I can go back to, just to highlight again what the Auditor-General said about the matters that the Leader of the Opposition is raising—
Opposition members interjecting—
Settle down! Settle down! What he said was: 'For us to see that there was some driver, in this, that we would have to identify, in those representations, there was a bias, there was a correlation between what in those representations and what was the outcome'—he, the Auditor-General, said: 'We didn't see that.' The Auditor-General has been quizzed on these very matters, and he has found no correlation, from the representations that were made from my office, with these outcomes. So the Leader of the Opposition is trying to throw mud while he himself sits in an absolute swamp. We know the Leader of the Opposition had a spreadsheet in his office, when he ran a similar program, which had a column on it that said: 'Labor or Liberal'. That's what he had. And then he threw the rulebook away and gave the money to the projects he wanted to.
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
He's a hypocrite!
Opposition members interjecting—
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
The call.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
He's finished. No-one else is jumping.
Tony Smith Speaker
No, no, no. We're not going to do that. No, the call alternates. The Manager of Opposition Business?
Mr Tony Burke Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts
The Prime Minister should withdraw that final remark.
Tony Smith Speaker
Yes. I just say to the Prime Minister: many Speakers have not allowed the word 'hypocrite', and he needs to withdraw it.
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
Tony Smith Speaker
And I thank the Manager of Opposition Business, because we'd moved on.