Penny Wong SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
2:42 pm
My question is to Senator Cormann, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. In question time yesterday, the Prime Minister refused to assure the parliament that the member for Chisholm is a fit and proper person to sit in the Australian parliament, instead hiding behind Ms Liu's statement. Why?
Mathias Cormann WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council
I completely reject that proposition. I think any Australian who has watched the Prime Minister stand right behind the member for Chisholm—
Michaelia Cash WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business
And today.
Mathias Cormann WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council
and again today, as Senator Cash rightly points out—knows that the Prime Minister has full confidence in the member for Chisholm.
Penny Wong SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
2:43 pm
Has the Prime Minister sought information from relevant agencies or from other ministers or their offices to assure himself of Ms Liu's fitness to be a member of the Australian parliament?
Mathias Cormann WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council
The Prime Minister has full confidence in the member for Chisholm.
Penny Wong SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
I ask the minister, on behalf of the Prime Minister, to give this chamber an unequivocal assurance that the member for Chisholm is a fit and proper person to be a member of the Australian parliament. I ask him to give that specific assurance.
Mathias Cormann WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council
As I've said on a number of occasions now, Gladys Liu, who has been elected as the member for Chisholm by the people of Chisholm, consistent with all of the requirements under our Constitution and our electoral laws—having defeated the Labor candidate who was a member of similar organisations, and, in fact, the same organisations—and having made similar observations about not having been aware that she had been made an honorary chairwoman and the like—
Penny Wong SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
On direct relevance: I asked a very specific question. I asked this minister, representing the Prime Minister, to give an assurance that the member for Chisholm is a fit and proper person to be in the parliament. I ask him to give that assurance.
Scott Ryan President
On this point of order, you've restated the question, Senator Wong. That is not a legal test. I'm using those words in the vernacular sense. That is not a legal test, nor is it a matter for anyone to determine someone's eligibility in this parliament—only the court, or indeed this chamber referring it to such. Therefore, in this case, because that is a question asked not in the legal meaning of that term, I believe the minister is being directly relevant when he is speaking this way.
Mathias Cormann WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council
Let me say to you again, very slowly: the Prime Minister has full confidence in the member for Chisholm. And you know what? The Labor Party think that they can run any smear and that is somehow going to reverse the democratic result at the last election in the seat of Chisholm and elsewhere. That is what this is all about. You're going through your seven stages of grief. You're not accepting the verdict of the Australian people. You're trying to smear a great Australian who has come here as a migrant and has worked very hard and who has been endorsed by the people of Chisholm at the last election.