Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

What prompted this motion of dissent was a question from the member for Perth that was plainly out of order. It is the longstanding practice of this House that you cannot give screeds of information or pseudo information in the guise of a question. In accordance with the longstanding practice of this House, only information which is strictly necessary to make sense of the question is permissible. The member for Perth was chronically in breach of that practice. He was chronically in breach of that practice in his first question and, having been quite rightly and properly pulled up by you, Mr Speaker, he was chronically in breach of the longstanding practice of this House in his second question.

Page 542 of House of Representatives Practice makes it perfectly clear that the member for Perth’s question was out of order and you, Mr Speaker, were perfectly entitled to sit him down, as you did. But what we are seeing today from members opposite is their general fury and frustration at the way things are not going their way. The member for Perth submitted an MPI today and, in your judgement, Mr Speaker, you chose an MPI that was submitted by the member for New England. Plainly, the fact that the member for Perth tried to deliver a 15-minute speech on the substantive motion of industrial relations, instead of speaking to the substance of this dissent motion, and the fact that he was gabbling away, to try to get a 15-minute speech out in 10 minutes, demonstrates what the real import of this proceeding is.

It was absolutely obvious, from the devastated looks on the faces of members opposite when the member for Perth moved this ridiculous dissent motion, that they know things are going very wrong. And the fact that the member for Lalor did not second this dissent motion, which is what would normally happen, shows that the rats are running in the ranks opposite. Madam 27 Per Cent certainly was not going to support Mr 24 Per Cent on this matter. I can feel the dream team coming on. I can sense the pair supported by more than 50 per cent about to do in the pair supported by less than 30 per cent.

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