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

I keep saying the member for Fisher; I mean the member for Fairfax. The member for Fisher is not responsible for any of these statements; the member for Fairfax is, however, Mr Deputy Speaker Mitchell. It is clearly a matter of confusing seats on the Sunshine Coast, which is easy to do and, similarly, the Gold Coast where there are three seats which I can sometimes confuse.

The member for Fairfax made these statements, and I assume that he has made them not knowing the import of attacking staff members whether they are in the opposition, the government or crossbenchers who cannot defend themselves. For that reason, it is a cowardly attack and I am very disappointed that the member for Fairfax would stoop to that level.

It is wrong, because in fact the Prime Minister proposed a paid parental leave scheme first in his book Battlelines, written a great deal of time before Ms Credlin worked for him as his chief of staff. Therefore the suggestion that Ms Credlin had been the influence on the Paid Parental Leave Scheme is demonstrably false as the Prime Minister wrote about it in Battlelines sometime before.

It is also an ignorant statement, because the member for Fairfax is suggesting that somehow, if the Paid Parental Leave Scheme as proposed by the Prime Minister passes the parliament, it would benefit Ms Credlin, the chief of staff; in fact, if Ms Credlin were fortunate enough to have a child, she would already benefit from a generous paid parental leave scheme, because she is a member of the Public Service. As a consequence, there is no possibility that she could benefit personally from the Paid Parental Leave Scheme being passed by this parliament.

What we are trying to do in the government by expanding the Paid Parental Leave Scheme is to help the member for Fairfax's constituents who do not currently serve as public servants and who do not have the generous paid parental leave scheme that exists in the Public Service. So the member for Fairfax's comment is an ignorant comment, because in fact, if he were to support the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, it would extend the benefits towards his constituents, who are women who give birth, in a similar way to those who currently in the Public Service receive the support of the taxpayer. For that reason, I have come into the House to clear up the statements made by the member for Fairfax. If the member for Fairfax wished to, it would be an appropriate thing for him to return to the parliament at some point and apologise to the chief of staff for making statements which quite clearly are: cowardly because she cannot defend herself; are wrong because in fact the Prime Minister proposed the Paid Parental Leave Scheme long before she worked for him; and are ignorant because the chief of staff would already benefit from the government's public service Paid Parental Leave Scheme, and the Prime Minister's proposal extends that further to people who are not currently members of the public service. I thank the House.

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