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

That is your problem, mate, not mine. They would pair themselves with the member for Fairfax to ensure that his vote is not counted on the side of the government in spite of the fact that he is not well enough to be here. So I call on one of them to do it—not necessarily the two in the chamber; maybe the member for New England. Obviously the member for Lyne is showing his true colours. But there are others: the member for Denison, the member for Kennedy, the member for Melbourne, the member for Fisher. They may well want to pair themselves with the member for Fairfax in order to ensure that this vote is not counted, because he has returned home. He is ill. He is incapable of being here, and the government has broken that pair in order to ensure that they get to 76 votes. I ask them to think very carefully about doing that.

The opposition will not support the suspension of standing orders. We support the bill and the amendment that has been made, moved by the shadow minister for small business, the member for Dunkley. We believe that a vote should be recommitted on the basis that a member has missed the vote for a very serious reason. In this case four members of the Labor government did not miss it for a very serious reason, and so I urge the House to reject the suspension of standing orders and one of the crossbenchers to do the right thing and absent themselves from the vote in order to ensure that the member for Fairfax is correctly paired.

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