Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, given that this House has spent $1.2 billion in appropriations for the war in Iraq, it is an entirely legitimate subject for discussion in relation to this legislation. Let me point out standing order 76(c). It says that one of the three exceptions is:

on the motion for the second reading of the Main Appropriation Bill, and Appropriation or Supply Bills for the ordinary annual services of government, when public affairs may be debated.

It is an express exception to the rule about confining debate to the subject matter of the bill. That is why I have had a far and wide-ranging speech in relation to this bill, and so have other members speaking on the appropriation bill. I can recall myself and many other members talking much further and wider in relation to issues of public administration than I am doing here. I am talking about matters of public administration. I am saying exactly what this government has been up to in relation to the war in Iraq and the conduct of the Australian Wheat Board. That is why I have raised the conduct of the Wheat Board and the fact that the government was clearly aware of the problems associated with those bribes and those kickbacks.

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