Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Mr Speaker. And the reason this motion should be given precedence over all other business is painfully transparent to the Australian public and to everybody other than the members of the Australian Labor Party. The Prime Minister should be called upon to come into this House and explain how it is that what everybody knows to be true about her government—that it relies on the vote of the member for Dobell to remain in office—can continue to be the case, sapping the very confidence the Australian people can have in a Prime Minister and a government that rely on such a tainted vote.

Let us look at the undisputed facts in this case. The BDO Kendalls report, an independent report, found that the member for Dobell had been engaged in inappropriate spending and that he was likely to have breached industrial laws by taking his then wife on 19 flights and by his failure to question seven credit card transactions for adult services totalling $5,000.

We have the Fair Work Australia report into the HSU branch No. 1 that was released on Friday that found that officers acted in a manner designed to secure a private advantage and were improperly using their positions to gain a personal advantage. It found that spending of $5,000 of members' money to gain experience and knowledge for the political campaign of Barack Obama was regarded by officers of the Health Services Union as justifiable spending. Fair Work Australia found that spending on officers to send them to a wedding was regarded as appropriate spending—

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