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

I have no doubt that, when he looks at this issue, he knows. Were there notes kept by the Chinese government? DFAT says that there were. Has he requested them? Has he bothered to investigate the Defence protocols that were outlined by the member for Isaacs in question time and not answered by the Minister for Human Services? You cannot, when you are a defence minister, even in your own time, frolic to foreign countries carrying particular technology and not even notify. What is going on in this Liberal government when you are having your ministers travel around the world, in their own capacity, doing their own deals?

The government of Australia and the ministers of Australia are not valets for donors to the Liberal Party, opening doors and closing doors. I mean, what was he doing there? Does he have the interesting hobby of watching big deals being signed and he just likes to turn up? Is it an affectation? And we do want to know who paid his airfare, how he travelled around and what equipment from the Australian government he took.

I cannot believe that this issue has gone on for the last number of days. Whilst the Prime Minister has a wry grin, most of his backbench cannot believe that he is still letting this issue drag on. I do not expect the Minister for Human Services to be here on the front bench when parliament resumes. The only thing stopping this Prime Minister now is his own arrogance. Because he is Prime Minister Turnbull, the smartest man in the room, no-one can tell him the truth in front of his nose because he does not like to hear it if it is not his own idea. Well, we have news for this Prime Minister: we are going to make sure we persist on this issue. This minister has been acting in a private capacity with a major Liberal Party donor, attending meetings with the Chinese government—signing ceremonies! Why on earth didn't he just do it as part of his job? I am sure some of you are asking that question. There is something far more distinctly unusual about this arrangement than even what we have got to the bottom of so far. This minister should go. He should go now.

This Prime Minister should stop contracting out to Dr Martin Parkinson, the highest ranking public servant in the land. He should just do his day job. This Prime Minister has been saying he is going to do this and that and move all the chess pieces around and be the master of it all. The truth of the matter is this: you could have dealt with this issue on the Thursday when this issue came up. The fiction of this Prime Minister acting decisively is this: he only asked Martin Parkinson to do an inquiry at 1.58, two minutes before question time. I can bet that, if you are a foe of Malcolm Turnbull's in the Liberal Party, when he saw that press story at 6.30 that morning he would have been on the phone saying, 'We must investigate this matter and we must deal with it.' It is not good enough. You need to do better. You know that your government is drifting on a range of policy areas and tax— (Time expired)

See this speech in context