Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek to make a personal explanation.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday during debate the member for Higgins made a statement that was untrue. I think she knows it was untrue, and she did not take the opportunity to correct the record when it was brought to her attention. She said, 'The Greens member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, received more than $360,000 across both elections as a direct donation' from certain organisations. That is untrue. I respect the member for Higgins. There is plenty for us to disagree about without her making false allegations.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member has made his personal explanation and has pointed out where he has been misrepresented. The honourable member for Cook was courteous enough to advise me that he had a personal explanation. I advise honourable members who wish to make personal explanations that it would be useful to advise the chair. That means it is less likely that they will be overlooked when they seek the call.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek to make a personal explanation.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes I do, Mr Speaker.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the Australian today an article penned by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, which has otherwise been described as his job application for the position of Treasurer under Mr Rudd, has said the following things—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will get to where he is misrepresented.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will go to the point of my misrepresentation.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will continue but remember it is a personal explanation.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand. In that article he made reference to comments that I had made regarding the coalition's costing to put a processing centre on Nauru, at less than a third of the costs of the government's proposal, with 600 more beds. He said in this article:

We now know the costing was done by a catering company. Morrison's claim that the company had been involved in building the Nauru facility is a blatant untruth.

I need to clarify this mistake by the minister, because I assume he did not mean it disingenuously. The coalition costing for re-establishing the processing centre on Nauru was completed by a company—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member has to show—

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He mentioned me specifically, and I will go right through it in detail, and you might want to listen carefully. The coalition costings—

Government members interjecting—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! If the member abuses the privileges of being given the call as he has, he will not get the opportunity of finishing his personal explanation. Because he does not do it very often, I will allow him to continue, but he must focus his remarks on where he personally—and not anyone else—has been misrepresented.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I quote from the article where the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship said:

Morrison's claim that the company had been involved in building the Nauru facility is a blatant untruth.

That was the statement by the minister in the article today. The coalition costing for re-establishing the processing centre on Nauru was completed by a company called DeltaFM, a project management, facilities management, and building and construction company that develops and manages accommodation camps in remote locations and whose clients include Woodside, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and the government itself, through the Defence Housing Authority. DeltaFM is part of—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think I know the point the member is making. The member will resume his seat. The member will be expeditious, prompt and direct.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am endeavouring to be, Mr Speaker.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, not very well.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

DeltaFM is part of the Compass Group Australia, which last year offered to provide bipartisan advice to both the government and the opposition on costings for Nauru.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am going to call the member for Boothby, who has a personal explanation. I will give the member for Cook another opportunity after the member for Boothby, but it must be concise and it must be brief.