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

I second the motion. Standing orders must be suspended to provide the Prime Minister with an opportunity to give a full explanation about her actions, and the actions of the party she leads, in support of the member for Dobell.

I made the point yesterday that it is a matter of the gravest importance that one of the elected members of parliament has been found, by an independent government authority, to have fraudulently funded the campaign that enabled him to take his place in the national parliament. These findings are not gossip. These are not the accusations or wild allegations that come from a factional battle within the union movement. A quasi-judicial arm of the government, established by the Prime Minister herself, has made these very serious findings against the member for Dobell after an investigation and an audit that took more than three years.

The Fair Work Australia website reminds us that Fair Work Australia is part of Australia's national workplace relations system, which also includes the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Divisions of the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia. This is a quasi-judicial organisation, and it appointed an official investigator, Mr Terry Nassios, who produced a report of more than 1,100 pages with findings as to the activities of the HSU and the member for Dobell.

This report contains a litany of legal and industrial breaches, abuses of power, and misappropriation of funds for personal gain, including the procurement of prostitutes. These are findings. That is why standing orders must be suspended. These are not allegations or innuendo; these are findings that require a court to impose penalties.

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