Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister’s failure to tell the House when the border protection subcommittee met to determine the terms of the offer to the asylum seekers on the Oceanic Viking, when the offer was actually communicated to them, whether he was consulted about the terms of the offer prior to the meeting of the subcommittee, whether he was advised of its terms prior to it being made to the people on the Oceanic Viking, whether the decision of the subcommittee was minuted and when or whether he read it. Given these are very simple factual questions, Prime Minister, why won’t you answer them?

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

Once again, this reminds me of the lead-up we had to the Leader of the Opposition’s last censure motion a couple of weeks ago which did not actually proceed, but I am sure this one will proceed on this occasion. There should be a little more subtlety in the build-up to a censure motion, in my view. Let me go to the elements he has raised, as he asked, ‘When did the border protection committee meet?’ This committee meets on a continuing basis. There are multiple meetings of it, as is normal when you have an ongoing operation. So the answer to the question about when it met on this particular matter is simply that it has met on a number of occasions over the period of time that this and related operations concerning people smuggling have been underway.

He asked further whether this particular decision of the border protection committee of the cabinet has been properly recorded. All decisions of cabinet committees are properly recorded. Furthermore, when it comes to cabinet committees and their normal operation, given one is chaired by a senior cabinet minister, in this case the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, and advised by staff, I have full confidence in the operations of the committee. If the honourable gentleman has further questions to ask about these operational elements of the cabinet committee, I would simply refer him to this point: we act entirely consistently in a manner in which a cabinet committee operates as outlined in the cabinet handbookas I thought would have operated in the case of their cabinet handbook with the single exception of course that the Leader of the Opposition, when minister for the environment, would constantly leak on his cabinet colleagues, including the then Prime Minister.

Again, if the Leader of the Opposition is proceeding in the direction of his censure motion, as I assume that he is, can I say to him that I am all ears to hear his substantiation for the charge he made in this precinct yesterday. He held a press conference once he left this chamber yesterday, having heard my responses, and said that I had misled the parliament in terms of my knowledge and approval of the particular document issued by the Jakarta embassy’s immigration councillor. That is his charge. He has not retracted that charge. I look forward to him in his censure motion adducing the evidence to underpin that charge.