Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a censure motion.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition moving forthwith:That this House censures the Prime Minister for:

(1)

misusing the official residences for party political fundraisers in breach of the Prime Minister’s own “Guide on Key Elements of Ministerial Responsibility”;

(2)

misleading the House about the misuse of these official residences;

(3)

placing the Commonwealth in a position of non-compliance with the Commonwealth Electoral Act by making a “gift” of the use of the official residences to the Liberal Party of Australia; and

(4)

undermining the independence of the Australian Electoral Commission.

It is remarkable indeed that on a day like this the government will not even take a censure on something as serious as the misuse of the Australian national estate for party political fundraising purposes by the Liberal Party. What we have on display for the nation and for the parliament is a government which has become arrogant in office, a government and a Prime Minister which have now lost touch with the Australian people, a government and a Prime Minister which believe that the taxpayers’ assets, the public assets, the people’s assets, are now the personal property of the Liberal Party of Australia. Their belief is that those instruments, those resources and those fundraising opportunities are now all political playthings available for their collective use in order to use to advance the partisan interests of their party.

This is a pattern of behaviour. It is a pattern of behaviour that we have seen unfolding again in recent weeks in this parliament. The Prime Minister sat there over recent weeks as he took question after question from us on what was happening with the government rolling its hand down into the pocket of the taxpayer to pull out wads of cash in order to fund party political advertising and to fund it straight from the taxpayer. We spent day in, day out trying to extract the truth from this Prime Minister on why and to what extent his government was using taxpayers’ dollars to prop up the political interests of the Liberal Party and the television ads which they had planned—which everyone knew they had planned, but which they did not have the courage or the honesty to admit at the dispatch box were then in process. This pattern of behaviour continues. It is not just reaching in and grabbing the taxpayers’ dollars for party political ads. It now goes to core parts of our national estate. Kirribilli and the Lodge are the official residences of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia in Sydney and in Canberra.

Since these matters opened up some five days ago following the coverage in the Sunday newspapers, we have had the government ducking and weaving around one simple proposition: was this a fundraising event or was it not? It is remarkable that here we are on a sitting Thursday and the Prime Minister still cannot bring himself to admit this fundamental fact. If you go to the text of the document itself, it is remarkable what it says. Let me read to you from the document of 2005—this was when they had fun down at the Lodge. The 2005 Liberal Party of Australia’s federal council document which was sent out to business observers says, ‘Registration form, Business observers: Please note, registration forms will not be processed until payment is received.’ That is the first point. Under ‘Attendance’, it says, ‘Registration fee: $7,500.’ And it goes to say: ‘The business observers registration fee includes all meals, including the council gala dinner, admittance to the business observers program and council material.’ It then says: ‘Numbers for some functions are limited. Please register and pay early to avoid disappointment.’ It also says, ‘To assist in administration and catering, please indicate your attendance at each of the following functions.’

So let us get the sequence right here. There is a $7,500 registration fee to gain acceptance and admission to the business observers program. Then you are asked on the selfsame form to tick the box as to which of the elements of this business observers program you are going to attend in response to the amount of money that you have paid. And what do we find on this list? On Friday, 24 June, you get morning tea with chiefs of staff. Then there is an economic luncheon with the Treasurer, the Hon. Peter Costello. Additional tickets were $150 for that. There is the health luncheon, with the Hon. Tony Abbott. It was $150 for that. It would be interesting to see who went to what and who got the best numbers. And then there is this amazing little box: ‘Welcome reception’. It does not say where. It does not say whose welcome reception. But we now know it is the Prime Minister’s welcome reception. What we have been told by members of the business community is that when they are at their federal council meeting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The motion is to suspend standing orders. The Leader of the Opposition will speak to the motion.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are speaking to the urgency of the suspension, and it goes to the whole question of the integrity of the use of public resources in this country for their proper purposes, including the whole question of the national estate. But when we come to the proposition that the business community, having completed a form like this, were then bussed from the Hyatt over to the Lodge and greeted at the door of the Lodge by the Prime Minister, it is transparently obvious what the function was. If it smells like a fundraiser, if it looks like a fundraiser and, given the canapes on offer, if it tastes like a fundraiser, in all probability, Prime Minister, it is a fundraiser. Let’s just call a spade a spade here. It is like saying in the last few weeks we have been in the parliament that when it came to taxpayer funded political advertising, because it had not been approved, the fact that the advertising campaign existed meant, according to you, that it did not officially exist. This is the sort of word game, Prime Minister, the Australian people are growing tired of because they have seen it up hill and down dale.

Here is the second problem which the Prime Minister has in his defence. The Prime Minister says it is not a fundraiser.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will speak to the motion.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the question of the urgency in this matter, it keeps coming back to the proper use of public resources, including the national estate. The Prime Minister asserts it is not a fundraiser at all. Yet if that is the case why then did he see fit to repay some money? There is a bit of a logical contradiction here: it is not a fundraiser, but we feel a bit guilty about it so we will return some of it. Of course, we do not know how much has been returned, nor do we know at this stage on how many occasions the Lodge and Kirribilli have been used for this purpose. These are mysteries yet to be unfolded for us all in this place. But when it comes to the use of these resources and the national estate, the Prime Minister has sought throughout this debate that we have been having all week in this parliament to evade basic accountability to the parliament on these key questions of truth. It happened in 2005; we know that. It happened in 2007. It was $7,500 a kick. There were a couple of hundred people rolling in the door, with Mr Howard greeting them, saying, ‘Welcome to the canapes.’ By the way, here is a question: which of the staff are actually engaged at this point? There are the official staff at Kirribilli and the Lodge. Then there are those which are seen to be engaged for the occasion. Are they separately accounted for in this exercise? These are matters to which we still do not have the answers, Prime Minister. But when you go through the final list of the 2007 function and look at all numbers listed, it is quite plain that the main event, the main attraction on that program for your $7,500 investment—

Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fran Bailey interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Small Business and Tourism!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

is to get to the Lodge and to get to Kirribilli for the purposes of being greeted by the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, in your ministerial code of conduct you say:

Ministers are provided with facilities at public expense in order that public business may be conducted effectively. Their use of these facilities should be in accordance with this principle. It should not be wasteful or extravagant. As a general rule, official facilities should be used for official purposes.

Prime Minister, what did you mean by that? What did you mean by this provision of the ministerial code? If it says, ‘Their use of these facilities should be in accordance with this principle’—this principle being that they should be used for public and official purposes—then using the national estate for fundraising purposes is in gross violation of the ministerial code you have laid down for your ministers. Is the Prime Minister asserting that he is not governed by the ministerial code he has put out there for his ministers? Obviously he believes he is beyond it and above it.

Then there is the final element of the saga: the panic here yesterday as they sought to get on the phone to the AEC and make sure there was no problem—through the Special Minister of State’s office, via his Chief of Staff, trying to nobble poor old Mr Bodel, who is responsible for disclosure matters at the AEC, to make sure that that individual was not going to cause a problem for the Prime Minister.

Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fran Bailey interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister for small business is warned!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government exhibits arrogance pure and simple in its abuse of public resources. It is a government that has been in office too long. It is a government which has now lost touch with the people. It is a government which believes, Prime Minister, that the national estate is its personal property to use and do with as it pleases and, on this occasion, to raise money for the Liberal Party improperly to prosecute its election campaign. (Time expired)

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion to suspend standing orders seconded?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset I say to the Leader of the Opposition that that was not quite as bad as his AM performance but it went very close. Let me say to the House very directly why there is no case to suspend standing orders to discuss this issue. The reason there is no case to suspend standing orders to discuss this issue is that the two most important public policy issues before this parliament today are, firstly, the Leader of the Opposition’s inability to understand the basic principles of his own economic attack on the government—

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Adelaide is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and the basic principles of productivity in this country.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Snowdon interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lingiari is warned too!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Secondly, the revelations in the ABS statistics that were released yesterday clearly show that the policies pursued by this government over the last 10 years have been policies that have—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

benefited the less well-off in the Australian community. They are policies that have not robbed the poor in order to further enrich the rich. Rather, they are policies that have put on display to the Australian public the commitment of this government to principles of social justice and fair treatment of all citizens. If this parliament should be debating anything of public policy importance today it ought to be debating those two issues. That is why I believe the parliament should reject the suspension of standing orders sought by the Leader of the Opposition.

As I understand the working of this House, in order to suspend standing orders you need to establish that the issue you want to discuss is of such overwhelming importance that it cannot be put on notice and that it cannot wait until another day. In repudiating that proposition, I argue that what is important to the Australian people today is whether the alternative Prime Minister—

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Federal/State Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr McMullan interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Fraser is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

of this country really understands his alternative economic policy. What is also important to the Australian people today is whether the policies that this government has pursued over the last 10 years are policies that have been of benefit to the great majority of the Australian people. In the last 24 hours we have seen a dramatic set of economic figures that have totally detonated any credibility in the economic attack of the Leader of the Opposition on me and on the government I lead. From the moment that the Leader of the Opposition assumed his present position he said that I led a government that had failed to use the prosperity of the last decade to fairly reward all of the Australian people. He said I led a government of privilege, a government of the rich, a government that did not care about the less well-off in the Australian community. That was a charge that was gathered under the quaint general description of ‘Brutopia’.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Owens interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Parramatta is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was depicted by the Leader of the Opposition as a person interested in privilege and indifferent to the suffering of the less well-off. That was always a false charge. It was a charge made false by the employment record of this government. What other Prime Minister can turn to an unemployment level at a 33-year low? What other government can point to real wages having risen by 20.8 per cent in 13 years? What other government can point to the low levels of inflation and interest rates? What this parliament should be addressing today are those issues of the fairness of the government’s economic policies and the total inability of the Leader of the Opposition to even understand the basis of his own economic attack. I know that the Leader of the Opposition wants to talk exclusively about Kirribilli House today and I will come to Kirribilli House—

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Garrett interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Kingsford Smith is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

but he has got to establish urgency. He is trying to deflect the gaze of this parliament and of the Australian public from those two very important economic debates. He has tried to divert the attention of the public and of the media away from his appalling economically illiterate performance on AM this morning when he did not understand the first thing about what he has been prattling on about for the last six months, and that is productivity. He was asked again and again whether he had read the national accounts and he either had not, or he refused to acknowledge that he had, or he was trying to misrepresent what they meant. You cannot be a credible economic alternative if you do not understand your own economic argument. This Leader of the Opposition, I charge, does not know anything about productivity. He does not know what it constitutes. He does not know the history of it in this country and he certainly does not understand the policies that are necessary to bring it about.

Having dealt with the issue of urgency, let me deal very briefly with some of the other matters that were raised by the Leader of the Opposition. Let me just explain to the House in sequence what happened in relation to the Kirribilli House event. As part of matters surrounding the federal council meeting there was a drinks party, which I hosted at Kirribilli, to which delegates to the federal council, a few other members of the Liberal Party and business observers to the council were invited. The invitations that were extended to the business observers in the first instance and the invitations on which decisions were made by those business observers to attend did not, I am advised, make any reference to attendance at Kirribilli House, but rather a reference to a Prime Minister’s reception. I regarded it as proper, as did the Federal Director of the Liberal Party.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Brendan O’Connor interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gorton is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The decision taken before the event was held was that, given it was an event taking place in conjunction with the Liberal Party Federal Council, it would be proper for the Liberal Party to pay the additional costs involved in hosting the event. And when I speak of additional costs I mean the additional costs of food and drink and any additional security, and the additional cost of any further staff that were obliged to attend. I think I advised the House of a figure of some $5,100, to which should be added, I am now told, some security costs of several hundred dollars.

I also inform the House that prior, to the event being held, verbal advice was obtained from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet by my chief of staff that, given all the circumstances and given the intention of the Liberal Party to pay the additional costs, it was an entirely appropriate use of the official residence. That was the advice that was obtained.

Much has been made of the fact that these delegates were coming to the federal council meeting only because of the possibility, of which they were not formally advised before accepting the invitation to come, that they would be able to come to Kirribilli House. That might be a valid argument if the only opportunity of access to me or my ministers occurred at the Kirribilli House function. But I can tell the House that, unlike other party conferences, there was full access to me and to senior ministers at the meetings of the federal council and all the surrounding occasions, so there is no question of this being an improper use.

I simply remind the parliament that, whatever may be said about Kirribilli House, no use of Kirribilli House in relation to me or the Liberal Party could possibly match the use of Kirribilli House in 1988 to determine the future leadership of the Australian Labor Party. It is very instructive, when you are talking about who was included and who was not included, that at the famous Kirribilli House pact the only two people present, other than Mr Hawke and Mr Keating, were the then leader of the ACTU and the person who was then known as the most beneficial financial supporter of Bob Hawke and of the Australian Labor Party. That was a metaphor for the approach that government took to the use of Kirribilli House. (Time expired)

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has just told the parliament and the people of Australia why this is an urgent motion and why this government is so out of touch that it just does not get it, because, as far as the Liberal Party are concerned, there is no bill for Kirribilli. The Liberal Party believe that Kirribilli House and the Lodge are their own private country club. Let us have a listen to what the Prime Minister said. The first thing that he did was to speak about additional costs as if the security, the staff at the Lodge and the staff at Kirribilli House are there at his beck and call to serve the Liberal Party if the Liberal Party are using it for fundraising. To cover up this abuse of democracy, over the past 24 hours we have seen a compromising of the independence of the Australian Electoral Commission.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the Leader of the House of standing order 62.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The response of the government has been to breach the Australian Electoral Act and to breach the ministerial guidelines. And what does the Prime Minister say? He says, ‘We paid the additional costs.’ The only way that the food at Kirribilli could have cost $9.46 a head was if guests leaned over the fence at Kirribilli and fished it directly out of Sydney Harbour. The Prime Minister’s use—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Leader of the House will resume their seats or leave the chamber.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No wonder they do not want a debate on this.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I did not think it was a problem to do what I have just done. Certainly members opposite do it all the time.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not a point of order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister was reminded that he had not tabled any costs for security staff, so what did he do? On the run, he told parliament, ‘Oh, there were several hundred dollars spent on extra security for the Kirribilli House function.’ We also know, because it has come out today, about the 2005 function—that this is a regular abuse, a serial abuse of the Prime Minister’s two residences to raise money for the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister says that he has advice. He should table it before this parliament, because it is pretty clear that this was an abuse. You have only to look at the business observer’s registration form and you will find it has a series of events. Many of them have additional tickets available where you can buy your way in, with the exception of three events, and those three events are the Senate afternoon tea, the morning tea with chiefs of staff and the Prime Minister’s reception at Kirribilli House.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship will observe standing order 62.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is very clear, with due respect to the senators and with due respect to the chiefs of staff, that the big attraction for this event was the reception at Kirribilli, where you got food—oysters, prawns, fine wine, posh soup in little shot glasses—for the bargain basement price of under $10 a head.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The honourable member opposite is now seeking to debate the substance of the motion. He is not debating why standing orders ought to be suspended and he ought to be brought back to the motion.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will come back to the motion before the chair.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The only way that the food at Kirribilli could have cost $9.46 a head is if they had flung a fishing line into the harbour and caught the fish themselves.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I resume my point of order. Under the standing orders, it is quite clear that this is a motion to suspend—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. There has been a wide-ranging debate on this motion; there has been a wide-ranging debate on both sides. The member’s time has expired. The question is that the motion to suspend standing orders be agreed to.

A division having been called and the bells being rung—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the member for Hotham made an offensive remark about the Leader of the House.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did not hear it. If the member for Hotham made an offensive remark about the Leader of the House, he will withdraw it.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not believe it was an offensive remark, and if you did not hear it, why would you take his word?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hotham will not reflect on the chair.

Question put:

That the motion (Mr Rudd’s) be agreed to.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.