Senate debates

Monday, 3 December 2018

Questions without Notice

Morrison Government

2:38 pm

Photo of Mathias CormannMathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McAllister for that question. I don't want to upset Senator Collins again but, whenever I am asked questions about preselection matters in the Liberal Party, Senator Marshall for some reason is absent from the chamber. I just wonder whether that is just by coincidence.

I would also like to correct an inaccurate assertion in the question. I'm not aware of any accurate suggestion that Mr Kelly has threatened to resign from the Liberal Party. In fact, on the basis of all of my conversations, Mr Kelly is a very proud member of the Liberal team and, indeed, the Prime Minister has taken steps to back incumbent members up for preselection in the great state of New South Wales not unlike Mr Shorten has done on various occasions. I'm looking here at 'Bill Shorten forbids preselection challenges ahead of election', which is an article in The Australian from 10 July 2018. I'm not quite sure how Senator Marshall missed out on Mr Shorten's protection. On the same basis, to reflect on what you've just said, Senator Collins, 'Bill Shorten asks ALP's national executive to decide Victorian preselections as tensions rise'.

The point I'm making is that those who are in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. We well understand that, in the lead-up to preselections and in the lead-up to elections, competition is part of a democratic process and from time to time leaders of either political party make certain judgements about what is in the best interests of the party, the government and the country.

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