Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion that would require the member for Dobell to attend the House and make a personal explanation.

Leave not granted.

In which case, I move:

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

That the Member for Dobell:

(1) attend this Chamber without delay to make a personal explanation for a period not exceeding 15 minutes with respect to the following alleged misrepresentations made in the press. That during the period he was national secretary of the Health Services Union the following occurred:

(a) on 8 April 2005, a call was placed from his union-funded mobile telephone to a number listed as belonging to Sydney Outcalls and on 9 April 2005, a credit card voucher in the amount of $2,475 was issued against the HSU credit card in his name, bearing his signature and referencing his NSW driver's licence number;

(b) on 16 August 2007, a call was placed from his union-funded mobile telephone to a number listed as belonging to Sydney Outcalls and on 16 August 2007, a credit card voucher in the amount of $385 was issued against the HSU credit card in his name, bearing his signature and referencing his NSW driver's licence number;

(c) at diverse times between 2002 and 24 November 2007, he made cash withdrawals from automatic teller machines against his HSU credit card, without producing receipts acquitting or justifying such advances, in an amount totalling some $101,000;

(d) at diverse times between 2002 and 24 November 2007, credit card vouchers in the amount of $15,011 were issued against his HSU credit card in his name for restaurant bills, liquor, accommodation, electronics and a signed poster of motorcycle champion Mick Doohan;

(e) at diverse times between January 2003 and October 2007, credit card vouchers in the amount of $13,809 were issued against his HSU Diners Club card in his name for 19 separate airline tickets for someone other than himself; and

(f) before the 2007 Federal Election, credit card vouchers were issued against his HSU Master Card in his name in relation to the 2007 Federal Election in Dobell in the amount of $18,733 for radio advertising, $7,253 for postage and $13,648 for printing none of which were disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission as is required under the electoral disclosure law;

(2) provide the factual basis for his statements on 1 August 2011 in the press, but not in this House, that the allegations above are a misrepresentation because while he had authorised payment by the HSU of these credit card transactions:

(a) he was not responsible for booking and making payment for services in question;

(b) the credit card had been used without his knowledge;

(c) his signature on the vouchers had been forged;

(d) that another person had accepted responsibility for payments to escort services; and

(e) that that other person had personally repaid $15,000 against that liability; and

(3) explain to this House why he did not register the payment of a substantial gift to him by the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party paid in May 2011, variously reported as being either $40,000, $90,000 or $150,000 towards the costs incurred in commencing and subsequently abandoning private defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media Ltd in the register of members' interests until at least 77 days after his receipt of those funds.

The member for Dobell needs to assure the House of these matters in a personal explanation or otherwise the Prime Minister's confidence in him is baseless and her protestations of his innocence sound hollow. The Prime Minister and the member for Dobell are essentially in lockstep today. The Prime Minister herself should demand that the member for Dobell attend the House and make a personal explanation dealing with each of these so-called misrepresentations. A personal explanation is the correct mechanism in this House for a member to dispel doubts about whether claims made about him or her are a misrepresentation. The fact that he has not done so suggests that he is not being—

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the member be no longer heard.

Question put.

The House divided. [12:08]

(The Speaker—Mr Harry Jenkins)

Question negatived.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time has expired. Is the motion seconded?

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion of the member for Sturt, and if the Labor Party had nothing to hide it would ask the member for Dobell to come in and account for his actions to this parliament.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: with regard to the motion that has been moved and now seconded before the chair, in the past motions have been ruled out of order because they were overly lengthy. This is a motion that took the mover some four minutes to read into Hansard.

Honourable members interjecting—

The member for Sturt concedes that he is slow, but it is not the case that the standing orders should be subverted by an overly long motion. I ask you, Mr Speaker, to rule it out of order.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I stand by the decision of the person occupying the chair at the time to allow this suspension motion to proceed. It is of the A to Z that the Minister for Defence knows much about and the compromise there is that it takes four minutes to read and that is four minutes of a speech. I understand that the Leader of the House will have some grievance about the fact that he cannot move that the member be no longer heard until after that point, but I think that that is the accommodation. I agree with him that it would assist the House if motions were truncated, but on this occasion we have got this far.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the member be no longer heard.

Question put.

The House divided. [12:25]

(The Speaker—Mr Harry Jenkins)

Question negatived.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time has expired. The time allotted for the debate has expired. Whilst not by way of a point of order, I will explain that the problem is that the motion was never put to the House.