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

I thank the House for agreeing to the suspension of standing orders and, as a consequence, I move:

That the Manager of Opposition Business, the member for Watson, be required by this House to immediately apologise to the Speaker for grievously reflecting on her in this place, most particularly yesterday in a motion of referral of the Speaker to the Standing Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests.

In the member for Watson's defence on the suspension of standing orders, he made the rather extraordinary claim that when it was discovered that the previous member for Watson had a fundraiser in his Speaker's dining room the then opposition demanded his resignation and he resigned over that matter. Just to indicate how bad the Manager of Opposition Business's position has become, let me explain some of the facts and the timing of what actually occurred in that decade, because, as you know, Madam Speaker, you and I were both in the parliament.

The member for Watson might like to check the record, because he has now made another false statement to the parliament. In fact, former Speaker Mr McLeay resigned as Speaker because he was accused in 1993 of falsely making a claim for $65,000 of benefits from the Commonwealth for falling off a bicycle. Subsequently it was found that his claim was within the guidelines, but by that stage he had resigned and was no longer in the Speaker's chair. In the year 2000, seven years later, this article appeared and that is when the then government—the Liberal Party—discovered that in fact the former member for Watson had held a fundraiser in his Speaker's dining room.

So it is quite chronologically impossible for the member for Watson's previous claim, made only 30 minutes ago, to be true. How could the so-called then opposition, which was now in government, have demanded that the member for Watson resign over fundraising in the Speaker's dining room when we did not know about it until seven years after the former member for Watson had resigned from the Speakership?

What this points to of course is that every day the Manager of Opposition Business comes into this place and seeks to find some fig leaf with which to attack the chair. This has been a pattern from day one. Today it is confusing the years in which Leo McLeay was Speaker and when the revelation was made about him fundraising in the Speaker's dining room, and I have made that very clear to the House. But every single day the member for Watson seeks to denigrate the chair, whether it is calling you a witch on the first day of your election, whether it is moving a dissent motion on the first day of your election, whether it is moving a no confidence motion within weeks of the parliament starting to sit in November last year. Every day the Manager of Opposition Business tries to distract the House by attacking the chair.

Now, it is a fine Australian tradition, particularly in this House, that the chair is respected. All of this bullying, all of this dissent, all of this denigration, these no-confidence motions and these insults are usually reserved for the people who are sitting on the floor of the House, because they can ostensibly defend themselves against those charges or that bullying, those insults. The Speaker's position is raised above the House, and that is why the Speaker should not be attacked and certainly should not be accused of doing something based on a falsehood.

We are asking the member for Watson to apologise for reflecting on the chair based on a falsehood—

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