Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw and rephrase, Mr Speaker. The shadow—or, rather, he will be shadow—the Assistant Treasurer has been caught out misleading the parliament and the people. The Assistant Treasurer has finally given in to the policies which we announced in February of this year. But there is an additional problem, and it is this: when the minister says that he will amend his bill, he is putting at risk his own legislation, because in this bill now are two measures relating to taxation, and section 55 of the Constitution says that a taxation matter may only be dealt with in a single bill. The minister should withdraw his initial bill and introduce two separate pieces of legislation. There is plenty of precedent for this where previously the legislation has been seen to be at risk and the government has chosen to withdraw its bill and introduce two separate pieces of legislation.

I do not expect for a minute that the Assistant Treasurer wishes to comply with the proprieties of this House. He has shown that by saying in his second reading speech that this bill ends age discrimination when it does not and then putting up on his website an alternative speech, which he purports to be his second reading speech—his tabling speech—saying that the government will amend the bill. The long and the short of it is that the Assistant Treasurer has in fact left on the record in his second reading speech, his tabling speech—a speech which can receive the attention of the court in any interpretation of the law, an error—and it is wrong. He will not correct the record of this misleading of the parliament.

I say to you, Mr Speaker, that a way has to be found in which the error and the deliberate misleading by the Assistant Treasurer has been left on the record. It must be corrected.

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