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

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Warringah from moving immediately:

That this House calls on the Prime Minister to explain the circumstances surrounding the offer of the foreign ministership to Bob Carr and its subsequent withdrawal at the insistence of the faceless men. Further, to explain all the issues of loss of trust now besetting her government.

In trying and failing to have Bob Carr made the next foreign minister of Australia, the Prime Minister has been bullied, beaten and leaked against by the faceless men who are running the Labor Party and controlling this government. Nothing has changed. That is why standing orders must be suspended. In dealing with this issue in the parliament today, the Prime Minister looked like a lawyer with a bad brief: shifty, evasive and dishonest. That is why standing orders must be suspended: so that she can come into this House and, just for once, be straight with this parliament and the people of Australia.

It is very clear what happened. On Monday afternoon, the General Secretary of the New South Wales Labor Party, Sam Dastyari, put it to the Prime Minister that Bob Carr should be the next Labor senator from New South Wales. On Monday evening, the Prime Minister called Bob Carr several times to offer him the foreign ministership of Australia. If this is not right, let the Prime Minister come in and explain it. That is why standing orders must be suspended. The former Premier accepted and he booked his flight to Canberra. If nothing had happened, why would the former Premier of New South Wales book his flight to Canberra? On Tuesday morning, senior cabinet ministers told the Prime Minister that this just wasn't on. But they did not just tell the Prime Minister, they leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald. Then, having bullied and leaked, they successfully intimidated the Prime Minister into withdrawing the offer. The final act in this sorry story: Sam Dastyari called Bob Carr to say that the Senate spot would go to someone else after all.

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

The Leader of the Opposition will return to the substance of the motion.

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

This is why standing orders must be suspended—so that if there is a different story it can be put to the House. What we had at the end was a distinguished former Premier of New South Wales left humiliated and desolate. Yet again, the Sussex Street death squads were dealing with a distinguished member of the Labor Party. That is why standing orders must be suspended.

Yesterday—so much has happened in just 24 hours—the minister for regional services, an auditioner for the Prime Minister's job, said this:

The Prime Minister is showing a new assertiveness.

Get that, Mr Speaker!

That will be demonstrated in the way in which she constructs the cabinet. The healing process has begun.

That is why standing orders must be suspended.

So much for assertiveness. The Prime Minister was rolled by the defence minister. It is like being beaten up by Clark Kent! She was rolled by the would-be foreign minister, currently the defence minister. As for constructing the cabinet, yet again she is being dictated to by the faceless men. And as for healing, she was being leaked against within 24 hours of winning a caucus vote. If what I am saying is not right she should come in and correct the record. That is why standing orders should be suspended.

What does all this say about the government? We know that only two-thirds of the caucus have confidence in the Prime Minister. What we now know is that the Prime Minister preferred an outsider to anyone else in her caucus to be the foreign minister. We know—and this is why standing orders must be suspended—that the former foreign minister said that the Prime Minister was responsible for a stuff-up a fortnight. I have news for you, Mr Speaker: she has lifted her productivity. Not 24 hours went by without another stuff-up—the offer of the foreign ministership of Australia to someone who was not even in the caucus.

We know that the faceless men are well and truly in charge. Now we have confirmation that they are more in charge than ever. Not only the faceless men, but in Sam Dastyari we have also got the faceless boy, Mr Speaker. Faceless men and faceless boys are running the government and that is why standing orders must be suspended. At the heart of all of this is the simple fact, revealed by the former Minister for Foreign Affairs again and again last week, that you just cannot trust this Prime Minister. The Australian people have completely lost trust in this Prime Minister. This is why standing orders must be suspended—so that she can come into this chamber, explain exactly what happened and finally tell the truth.

This week the Prime Minister came into the public arena and said she was impatient. She was busting—she was so impatient to take charge, but within 24 hours the faceless men were rampant, running her government to the extent that she could not even choose her own foreign minister. This week she came into the public arena and said, 'Oh, the member for Griffith is such an honoured member of my Labor Party; he was such a great Prime Minister,' when last week she had said he was a prima donna who had paralysed his own government and sabotaged hers. What does this Prime Minister think of us? Does she think we have the memories of goldfish? She should come into this House and explain herself. That is why standing orders must be suspended.

So often has this Prime Minister totally failed the test of trust: the member for Griffith could not trust her over the prime ministership, the Australian people could not trust her over the carbon tax, the member for Denison could not trust her over poker machine reform, and the Australian Federal Police could not trust her or her staff not to provoke a riot on Australia Day. The members of the Health Services Union cannot trust this government to ensure there is a decent investigation into the member for Dobell. This is a Prime Minister who time and time again has betrayed the trust of the Australian people. That is why standing orders must be suspended.

Members opposite must be tiring of the fact that this Prime Minister will not even face the parliament. She scurries out of the chamber. She seeks refuge in the whip's office, rather than sit in this chamber and honestly face up to the questions about her integrity. What does it say about the modern Labor Party, what does it say about this Prime Minister, that one-third of the caucus preferred a psychopath, as he was described, to her? What does it say about the Australian Labor Party that its leadership choice this week was between a prima donna and a backstabber? That is why standing orders must be suspended.

The tragedy for the Labor Party is that the party of Curtin and Chifley has degenerated to the point where it is now the party of Rudd and Gillard. Is it any wonder that Labor voters are deserting it for the Greens? The sad truth about the Labor Party is that the only god they know is power. The faceless men giveth and the faceless men taketh away—blessed be the faceless men. That is the tragic truth about the modern Labor Party. That is why standing orders should be suspended. That is why this Prime Minister should finally come into this parliament and explain herself, rather than taking the coward's course and leaving it to the Leader of the House. Shame on you, Prime Minister! (Time expired)

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

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion, Mr Speaker. Standing orders should be suspended and this motion should be given precedence over all government business because we have had fake Julia, we have had real Julia, we have had new Julia, we have had nasty Julia, but we are yet to see tell-the-truth Julia. This motion would give the Prime Minister the opportunity to come into the House and tell the truth for a change about the circumstances that surrounded the attempt to get Bob Carr into the foreign ministry, which was foiled by the faceless men of the Labor caucus.

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

I heard the Manager of Opposition Business say that the Prime Minister should come in and tell the truth for a change. The manager will withdraw the accusation that the Prime Minister tells untruths.

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

I withdraw that statement, Mr Speaker. Standing orders should be suspended and this motion given precedence because the Prime Minister is looking increasingly like Bernie Lomax from Weekend at Bernie's. The faceless men know she is politically dead, but they manipulate her and keep her from behind the scenes because it suits their ends to do so and for no other reason. These are the faceless men: Senator Don Farrell, Senator Feeney, Senator Arbib and Senator Conroy, the members for Port Adelaide and Maribyrnong and Oxley. Most of them are utterly unheard of, yet they wield more power than the Prime Minister and the cabinet when they decide who should be the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the circumstances in which they should be appointed. The faceless men of the Labor caucus need power and influence. They crave it—it is like a drug to the faceless men of the Labor Party. Without it, they cannot keep their lieutenants in line. Without it, they cannot give crumbs to the elves and sprites who rely on their power and influence for their own self-esteem and power and influence. The reason standing orders must be suspended and this motion given precedence is that it is time for the Prime Minister to own up to the real circumstances that surrounded the offer that was made to Bob Carr to be the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia over every single member of the Labor caucus. They are not just faceless men in the Labor Party but so useless that not one of them could take the role of foreign minister. They are so useless that not one of them could be Speaker of the House of Representatives. They are so useless that Bob Carr was preferred over every member of the Labor caucus. How does it make you feel? How does it make you feel that the Prime Minister would go to an outsider to take one of the most important roles in the Commonwealth rather than take any of her apparently valueless colleagues?

There is no better example of what has happened in this government and the Labor Party in the last several years than in three incidents that continue to haunt this government. The first is the midnight coup by the faceless men that removed the member for Griffith in 2010. The second, which we are still dealing with today, is the protection racket that surrounds the member for Dobell. The faceless man cannot allow the member for Dobell to leave the parliament because as soon as Labor loses office in Canberra the faceless men will lose their power around the country. Sussex Street came to Canberra when the New South Wales Labor government fell and they decided to move their power base down to Canberra. The faceless men are running this government. The Sussex Street death squads operated on the night of 23 June 2010. They operate to protect the member for Dobell in the protection racket that emanates out of this government and the Prime Minister's office.

And we have seen this week the third example, where the faceless men were not prepared to have Bob Carr as foreign minister. The faceless men said, 'No, we want that job for ourselves.' So in 24 hours this newly assertive Prime Minister asked for one thing. She wanted to get to choose her executive. She wanted to get to choose her foreign minister. She apparently wanted to get somebody respectable into the role of a cabinet minister in this government. But, no, the faceless men would not let her. They said, 'That job is for one of our favourite people. That job is for the current Minister for Defence.' That is why standing orders must be suspended—because it is time for the Prime Minister to own up to the Australian people about just who is running this government. Is it the Prime Minister or is she Bernie Lomax? Are Don Farrell, Senator Feeney and all the others the real power behind the throne? (Time expired)

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

I rise to speak on the 43rd suspension motion being moved by those opposite. Every day they come in here and they move a suspension of standing orders. Is it about policy? Is it about an alternative vision for the nation? No. It is always about muckraking and getting down in the gutter. It is always about their frustration with the fact that they did not win the last election and that they remain in opposition. We should not indulge the opposition by supporting the suspension of standing orders in order to have further indulgence from them.

What we have scheduled for this afternoon is a debate on a matter of public importance. It is an important debate. It is from the member for Robertson and it is about paid parental leave. I am not surprised that those opposite do not want to discuss paid parental leave because they had a debate on paid parental leave in their party room yesterday and it got to be a pretty hot old party room. The member for Indi said this yesterday to Senator Heffernan, 'Pop your Alzheimer's pills.' But there was also a bit of policy debate. Senator Heffernan gave a character reference for some of his colleagues with a word that would certainly be unparliamentary to use in this chamber. What is more, Russell Broadbent, the member for McMillan, got up and said that the opposition leader's paid parental leave scheme, partly funded by a tax on business, was the wrong priority and that the opposition should be looking at things like disability services—what this government is doing on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He was backed up by Queensland Senator Sue Boyce. She agreed, describing the Leader of the Opposition's proposal as 'a Rolls-Royce scheme when all we need is a Holden scheme'. They understand that we on this side of the House have put in place a paid parental leave scheme. It is in place. It is operating. It is effective. The minister was speaking about that earlier today in question time, before question time was so rudely interrupted.

Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance to the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition in relation to the appointment of a foreign minister.

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

The Leader of the House knows that he should be addressing why, in his view, standing and sessional orders ought not be suspended.

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

We know that Sue Boyce was one of the courageous people who voted for the CPRS in December 2009. Why? It was because she knew that those opposite negotiated in good faith with the government to put a price on carbon and they all agreed on that. They all went out there and advocated it, including the Leader of the Opposition.

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

The Leader of the House will return to the motion.

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

We could debate these issues if we did not suspend standing orders this afternoon. During the debate on this motion I was somewhat stunned that the Queensland members over there sat there quietly and listened to the outrageous suggestion that maybe Bob Carr might be selected for something because he is outside the parliament. I was sitting there thinking to myself two words: Campbell Newman. They are out there campaigning in Queensland for a bloke who is not even in the parliament to be the Premier of Queensland. That is what they are doing. And yet they come in here and say, 'Isn't it terrible that someone might be considered from outside the parliament.' We know that the Leader of the Opposition also wants to have a debate about truth. We had that debate and that is why he wants to suspend standing orders. This is a guy who said in a written speech to the Sydney Institute on 5 June 2007—

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

The Leader of the House will stop for a minute. Honourable members will hear the leader in silence for the rest of his contribution.

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

He said, 'One man's lie is another man's judgment call.' That is what the Leader of the Opposition said. We know that he went on the 7.30 Report and said, 'Don't believe anything I say unless it's in writing'. If it is not in writing it does not matter. We know that he said in the Sydney Morning Herald, 'There are some things the public has no particular right to know.' We know that he made statements like, 'Misleading the ABC is not quite the same as misleading the parliament as a political crime.' He is on the record time after time, yet he comes in here and moves a suspension of standing orders in order to indulge himself for the sole purpose of sitting on the government benches for just a few minutes during the division that is about to come. Just for a few minutes they can sit over here and fantasise that somehow after the August 2010 election they did not completely blow the negotiations with the crossbenchers and that since then they actually have had a positive thing to say about something.

You would think they would come in here and move a suspension of standing orders to talk about the economy, to talk about jobs, to talk about the environment, to talk about social policy or even to debate the Paid Parental Leave scheme. But what we see from those opposite is relentless negativity. That is what they say. They want to avoid a debate on paid parental leave, which is the next item of business to be dealt with, because the Leader of the Opposition, as he told the caucus room yesterday, is welded to the $2.7 billion a year scheme. He has no idea how it is going to be funded properly; it just adds to the $70 billion black hole, but he is welded to it. He might be welded to it, but it is rusting out there in the sun. If you cannot find a way to pay for your policies it is no wonder that you cannot come up with anyone. That is why the member for Moncrieff said on Sky last night that he believed the coalition needed to move the political debate towards policy based issues. He said:

I don't think I'm letting the cat out of the bag when I say people feel that we are not being proactive enough in terms of outlining the policies that we would bring into government …

Fortunately, the member for Moncrieff is not in this place at the moment, because he would be devastated by the fact that a suspension of standing orders has been brought on yet again—another negative statement.

We know that when the Leader of the Opposition was elected, he paraphrased Barry Goldwater, who said, 'I will offer a choice, not an echo,' when he ran for the Republican nomination in 1964. The Leader of the Opposition said, 'The job of the opposition is to be an alternative, not an echo; to provide a choice, not a copy.' We know that he paraphrased a little bit. He has modelled himself on Barry Goldwater in a number of ways. Barry Goldwater also said, 'My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones.' That is what Barry Goldwater had to say. It reflects everything that is said about this Leader of the Opposition who has modelled himself on Barry Goldwater completely. That is why the Democrats slogan of 'In your guts, you know he's nuts,' is so appropriate for this Leader of the Opposition.

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

The Leader of the House will return to the motion before the chair.

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

It is so appropriate, because throughout it he has been negative. The opposition made one good call today, which was not to have the shadow minister for foreign affairs participate in this debate. The Leader of the Opposition, at a function he went to for Josh Frydenberg, said about the member for Kooyong: 'I've got to say it is nice to have someone in the parliamentary party who understands foreign affairs at last.'

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

The Leader of the House knows he is straying.

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

What we know is that whoever the Prime Minister chooses as the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be much, much better and will be in a different league. You could pick someone out of a hat, you could do it at random, you could do it in the caucus or outside the caucus or on the street, even the next person to buy a coffee at Aussies would be more effective than this shadow minister for foreign affairs, who has no interest in policy. (Time expired)

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

The question before the chair is that the motion for suspension of standing and sessional orders moved by the honourable Leader of the Opposition be agreed to.

A division having be en called and the bells being rung—

Opposition members interjecting—

I remind honourable members that parliamentary privilege does not necessarily occur in the course of a division.

The question is that the motion moved by the honourable Leader of the Opposition for the suspension of standing and sessional orders be agreed to.

In division—

While the vote is being tallied, I have noticed that the honourable member for Mackellar entered the chamber before her one-hour suspension was up. I notice that the honourable member is actually sitting in the advisers box, which is not technically part of the chamber. However, it was inappropriate for the honourable member to enter the chamber before her one-hour suspension was up. On this occasion I do not intend to take any further action against the honourable member for Mackellar, but were there to be a repetition on the part of any honourable member, that honourable member will be named.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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