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

I seek leave to move a motion:

That in the view of the grave findings made against him by Fair Work Australia, the Honourable Member for Dobell be suspended from the service of the House for 14 sitting days, and that after that the Honourable Member make a statement for the consideration of the House in response to the findings made against him so that the House can consider whether a further period of suspension is warranted.

Leave not granted.

By leave—I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Sturt moving the following motion immediately—

That in the view of the grave findings made against him by Fair Work Australia, the Honourable Member for Dobell be suspended from the service of the House for 14 sitting days, and that after that the Honourable Member make a statement for the consideration of the House in response to the findings made against him so that the House can consider whether a further period of suspension is warranted.

This is the most serious motion that the parliament can consider. I do not move it lightly and it is not without precedent. In fact, the precedents for this are threefold in this parliament. In 1913 a member of the House Mr McGrath was suspended for a period of time from the service of the House because of reflections he made on the Speaker. In 1987 the former member for O'Connor was suspended for seven sitting days following remarks he made that were critical of the Speaker outside the parliament. Ken Aldred, a member of this House for a number of seats, in 1989 was suspended for two sitting days for statements he made that he refused to retract.

We do move this motion in this parliament because the allegations surrounding the member for Dobell are very serious ones, the most serious that can be made: that he engaged in corruption and that he misused union funds to the tune of almost half a million dollars. The Fair Work inquiry into the Health Services Union has made very serious findings against the member for Dobell. It found, amongst other things, that he used the union funds of his members to the tune of $6,000 on escort services. It found that he used $196,421 on staff of the Health Services Union for his campaign in Dobell, and that he used $71,300 of HSU funds directly in his campaign in Dobell.

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