Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Newcastle from moving the following motion immediately—That the House:

(1) notes:

(a) Government members have voted repeatedly to endorse the Member for Bowman's chairmanship of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training;

(b) doing so is a tacit approval of the Member for Bowman's behaviour and his attitude toward women;

(c) the Prime Minister has failed to act, and the Acting Prime Minister is failing to act in his absence;

(d) it is time for Government members to do the right thing and do something about the Member for Bowman's behaviour; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Acting Prime Minister to discharge the Member for Bowman from the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training immediately.

It is outrageous that members opposite continue to run a protection racket for what is astonishingly bad masculine behaviour. This is in spite of the fact that the member for Bowman said himself that he would resign immediately almost three months ago. The government were given the opportunity, handed to them by the member for Bowman himself, to discharge him from this role. He retains that position today as chair of a parliamentary committee, which pays him—

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