Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Watson from moving the following motion forthwith:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

  (a) today, the Prime Minister provided a letter to the Senate and the House from his departmental secretary relating to the inquiry into the compliance of former ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop with the Ministerial Standards;

  (b) the letter advised the Prime Minister that Ms Bishop told the secretary she had no contact with Palladium as Minister for Foreign Affairs;

  (c) Ms Bishop appeared in a video filmed in her ministerial office and published on Palladium's FaceBook page on 9 June 2017 titled "Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop commends Shared Value and Palladium's Business Partnership Platform";

  (d) during the period Ms Bishop was Minister for Foreign Affairs the company Palladium and its related entities entered into contracts with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade valued at over $600 million;

  (e) the integrity of this Government is linked to the observance and enforcement of the Ministerial Standards; and

  (f) unanswered questions remain in relation to the relationship between Ms Bishop and the departmental contractor on whose board she now sits and the rigour of the inquiry by the Prime Minister's departmental secretary; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to direct his departmental secretary to re-open his inquiry into former Minister Bishop.

The letter that the Prime Minister has tabled here—which, mind you, was tabled in the Senate, and until question time he had no intention of even tabling it in the House of Representatives, notwithstanding that both ministers were ministers in the House of Representatives, both ministers who decided it was time to resign once he became Prime Minister of Australia—

See this speech in context