Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance today, at its heart, is about jobs. The coalition is fighting for tens of thousands of Australian jobs. The Prime Minister is interested in only one job, and that is her own. The Prime Minister was a lawyer in another life. Before she became the ‘Prime Misleader’ of this nation she was a lawyer in training and practice. This Prime Minister knows what it is like for people to be on trial. When she said in this place, in her own words, that there should be a standard for honesty in public life, she invoked her legal background. She said:

If the minister had been a businessman and offered a promise like that and not kept it, he would have been sued. If the minister had been in a court of law and made a statement like that and it turned out not to be true, he would have been tried for perjury. If the minister had been in a church and made a statement like that and it turned out not to be true, the congregation would have known that he had broken the ninth commandment. I do not see why the standard should be different in business, should be different in churches or should be different in courts from the standard in public life. If anything, the standard in public life should be higher.

Do you know what this Prime Minister did on that occasion? She called for the resignation of a minister because she said he said one thing before the election and another after. Members of this House, the Prime Minister is on trial. She is on trial in the court of public opinion. Specifically, it is the integrity of the Prime Minister and the character of this Prime Minister that is on trial. As the Prime Minister said on this occasion to the House:

This minister went to the Australian electorate before the last election and gave his word, and he did not keep it.

‘The minister should resign’ were the words of the Prime Minister. On the fundamental question, ‘Did this Prime Minister lie to the Australian people at the last election over a carbon tax?’ is she guilty or not guilty?

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