Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave of the House to make a statement relating to pairing arrangements.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the House from making a statement relating to pairing arrangements for a period not exceeding 10 minutes.

In moving this motion before the House, I wish to draw the attention of all honourable members to the way that this parliament functions in a mature way and in the national interest. Today there is a funeral of a great Australian, Margaret Olley. The Australian government was to be represented at that funeral, as is appropriate, by the Hon. Simon Crean, the Minister for the Arts, and also represented was the opposition by her friend Malcolm Turnbull.

Last week in this chamber we acknowledged Margaret Olley's passing. In that, the Prime Minister moved the motion of condolence. It was supported by the Leader of the Opposition. That Leader of the Opposition had this to say:

I rise to support the eloquent words of the Prime Minister.

…   …   …

She—

that is, Margaret Olley—

did habitually what we all find difficult: doing good without being found out.

The member for Wentworth gave an extraordinary contribution. His eloquent words are, I think, worth quoting for all members. He said:

I do not know whether death surprised Margaret Olley or indeed that anything could surprise her, but when death came to take her they took her as full of life as she had been when William Dobell painted her, working right to the end—a great Australian never to be forgotten ...

It is indeed extraordinary that the Australian government will not be represented at her funeral today. I say to the opposition that they should have a good look at themselves for the way that they are determined to wreck proper processes, wreck parliamentary conventions and wreck common decency, when it comes to their behaviour.

Also, this morning we have the visit of the President of the Seychelles. The Prime Minister will greet the President, as is normal practice for our nation; yet, just as the pair for the arts minister was withdrawn, despite it being agreed to in writing, the pair for the Prime Minister has been withdrawn. Why has this occurred? This has occurred so that the Manager of Opposition Business can yet again engage in part of his grubby and hypocritical attempt to tear down proper parliamentary processes.

The government believes in due processes. We know that there is only one member of the Australian parliament currently under charges—that we know of, because we do know that that member was charged in May and no-one found out anything about that until July. So much for the transparency nonsense that those people opposite argue. Of course, we know that there is a history on that side of the chamber. They lost nine ministers and parliamentary secretaries over various issues and scandals while they were in office. Indeed, there were multiple police investigations into members opposite, including the great 'printgate' affair, with the member for Bonner, the member for Bowman and the member for Moreton, over allegations of misusing public money. This is what the Leader of the Opposition said about the member for Bonner at the time—and the member for Bonner has returned—

Mr Hockey interjecting—

I will get to you, Joe.

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