Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House whether the decision of the border protection subcommittee of cabinet to make the written offer to the asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking was minuted? If so, when did the Prime Minister first read the cabinet minute?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always welcome questions from the member for Curtin. She would always, I would hope, remember, in those deep, dark days in the past when she was a cabinet minister, that there is such a thing as how cabinet committees operate. Ours operate on the same grounds of confidentiality as theirs, with one exception: Minister Turnbull is not a minister of our cabinet, so it does not leak on a regular basis as theirs did. We all know the practice in times past: out the door and constant background briefings with the chaps upstairs about what was going on in the cabinet. Ours does not operate that way; it operates under standard cabinet procedures. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to move his censure motion, he should get on with it and defend his accusation yesterday.