Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

No, mate, we have material right up to the election. Now we see the government clearing the way. They will either sack the minister or they will sack their ministerial standards. You cannot have both. The real issue happening here as well is that Prime Minister Turnbull always has an excuse. It is always someone else's fault. In this case my prediction is that, if Minister Robert does not go as he should, they are going to blame the member for Warringah. In this case, whilst I disagree with many of the things the former Prime Minister did in government, I do not believe he was told the full truth by the Minister for Human Services.

We know that a letter was written requesting leave on 28 July. Of course, when you are going to have a holiday in your personal capacity to Dubrovnik, to Israel, to China and you are going in August, most Australians take six months to get the special cheap airfares. Not this minister. He said he paid for it all on his own. He issued a leave application on 28 July for a holiday travelling to three continents during the following two weeks, fortuitously. But did this minister put into his leave application what he was going to be doing in those countries?

If you are going waterskiing or just catching up with old buddies, I guess you do not have to. But, when you are a minister in a government, a defence minister in a government, and you are going to visit China and meet with Chinese leaders and help endorse some wannabe trade minister doing deals with major Liberal Party donors—did he tell the member for Warringah, or his office, who he was meeting with? I do not actually think that if the member for Warringah had had the full information in front of him he would have authorised this leave. But that is not good enough for Prime Minister Turnbull. Prime Minister Turnbull just wants this issue to go away. He would like to save one of his cash cows and his donors. He would like to save Minister Robert, because he did vote for him in the leadership ballot. But what he is doing is letting his loyalty to some people overwhelm his obligation to the nation. You got Tony Abbott once. We on this side are not going to let you get him again by blaming him for something which you know—

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