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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Did the north-west college linked to Bob Day receive the amount they asked for, or did the government give this organisation linked to Bob Day more than they actually asked for? Is it normal process for this government to provide organisations more money than they asked for?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left! The Leader of the House on a point of order.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was actually going to answer the question, Mr Speaker.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sorry; it was the way you approached the despatch box.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to take a point of order, if you would prefer, Mr Speaker.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister representing the Minister for Education and Training has the call.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Apart from the fact that the college is called the North East Vocational College, as opposed to north-west—but I am prepared to overlook yet another bit of sloppy work by the Manager of Opposition Business on behalf of his leader, for which I would have been sacked when I was the Manager of Opposition Business, I can tell you, under the current member for Warringah—

Opposition members interjecting—

who would never have put up with me making such a fundamental error. But let's pretend that the question was correct. The simple fact is that being lectured by the Labor Party on these matters shows a great audacity. The Leader of the Opposition has shown a preparedness to tell the great big Labor lie for most of his political career—in fact, the Mediscare campaign really took the cake. But, now, rather than focusing on the issues that mums and dads in Australia care about—things like energy prices, energy security, issues with their incomes through social security or tax cuts or how they are going to pay their mortgages on their homes, housing affordability or, in fact, even national security issues, like what is going on at the moment in Mosul, Raqqa and elsewhere in the world—the Labor Party is trying to blacken the name of former Senator Bob Day and cast aspersions on the reputations of senators.

It shows a particular audacity for the member for Maribyrnong, the Leader of the Opposition, to wade into the issue of who should or should not be in the Senate, because we all know that he has amongst his number Senator Kimberley Kitching sitting in the Senate representing Victoria right now.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order on direct relevance. The question went specifically to whether or not the amount given was more than the amount which had been requested.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have listened to the point of order, and I am listening very carefully to the Minister representing the Minister for Education and Training's answer. As he well knows, being the Leader of the House, he has some ability to compare and contrast, but that cannot be all of the remainder of his answer.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the Manager of Opposition Business makes a reasonable point. I am surprised that I got that far. Nevertheless, I will come back to Senator Kitching later in question time, because there is quite a lot that people in the House of Representatives and the general public want to know about Senator Kitching.

The reality is that the North East Vocational College received exactly the same grant as every other college in the pilot program.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why was it more than they asked for?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Sydney interjecting about this issue.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

None of us should be hearing the member for Sydney.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Quite right, Mr Speaker.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If we hear the member for Sydney interjecting again, it will be the last.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It pains me to say, but her voice pierces above the rest of the ruck, Mr Speaker. This is the member who, when she was the Minister for Health, was responsible for the National Housing Affordability Scheme, NHAS, upon which hundreds of millions of dollars was spent to build housing for international students. The biggest group that accessed the National Housing Affordability Scheme, which was a scheme designed for low-income and homeless Australians, was international students. (Time expired)