Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister, given the minister for immigration's less than clear answers to the last two questions. Put simply, Prime Minister: has the government abandoned the boat buyback policy or is it still live? Is it part of your arsenal or have you dumped it?

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

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order, given the interest in the niceties of this place and the previous questions and answers. It has become part of the habit of the opposition to refer to members as 'you' or 'your'. It is quite clear they should be either referring to the minister, or the Prime Minister, or to the member by their seat. It has happened all afternoon and the Manager of Opposition Business should ensure that is properly done. I would ask him to either rephrase the question or perhaps, in future, try and get it right.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Leader of the Opposition. There is some relevance to the point made.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister, to be perfectly clear: to the Prime Minister. The minister for immigration, on the last two occasions, has not assisted the parliament on the following matter so I would seek the assistance of the Prime Minister.

Is the boat buyback policy of the government still alive or have you abandoned ship? Have you got a budget for it? Is the government going to spend the money? Is the boat buyback policy alive or dead?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are now engaging in argument. Before I call the Leader of the House, the Leader of the Opposition was engaging in argument, which is not acceptable in questions; so if the Prime Minister could ignore the latter part of the question I will give him the call, but I will first give it to the Leader of the House.

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

Just very quickly, Madam Speaker, not only was it a question full of argument but also—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just made that point.

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

Yes, you did. But he made exactly the same mistake that I drew attention to in my earlier point of order and described the Prime Minister as 'you' again. Now, he really needs to try and get this right.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Leader of the House, but it was in the part of the question that I asked be not paid attention to.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can't use the word 'he' in this place—be careful!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Parramatta will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question and I am very pleased to say to him that the government stands by all its policies. We stand by all our policies and the reason why we stand by all our policies is, while they have not finally worked, they certainly are working. Illegal arrivals by boat are down by more than 75 per cent in the first two months of this government as opposed to the last two months of the former government and, frankly, members opposite are just a little bit embarrassed about the sorry state to which they reduced our country's border protection.