Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister—or, as he says, the ruler of this country! I refer to the bid by the Chinese company Landbridge to operate the Port of Darwin. I also refer to the fact that subsequently Landbridge gave former Liberal Minister for Trade Andrew Robb a part-time position paying $880,000 a year. Is the acceptance of $880,000 a year for a part-time job by a former Liberal minister action that would be caught by the Prime Minister's proposed legislation on foreign interference?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left! The Prime Minister has the call.

Opposition members interjecting—

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Members on my left will cease their wall of noise or they won't be here. A number have been warned. A single interjection from any of them will see them ejected. The Prime Minister has the call.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The honourable member will do everything he can to distract attention from Senator Dastyari. He will talk about anything, anything at all, except the fact that his leader refuses to take the right decision, the decision that a person of strong character and a person determined to protect Australia would take, which is to say to Senator Dastyari, 'You are out of the Labor Party.'

The Labor Party seeks to be the government. The Leader of the Opposition seeks to be the Prime Minister. The first job of every government is to protect the nation's safety. National security is the first responsibility, so how do you tolerate somebody in your party room, somebody on your Senate benches, somebody who until very recently was on your front bench, who has gone to the home of a foreign national, a home very familiar to the Leader of the Opposition, and told him to be wary that he may be under surveillance from ASIO, and then given him practical advice as to how to avoid it? Does the Leader of the Opposition think that the job of his party and his members is to help ASIO keep Australia safe? Or is it simply to sell Australia out?

If they think they're currying favour in Beijing by doing this, they are not. Senator Dastyari is a figure of contempt—of contempt—despised, because the Chinese people are patriots. They stand up for their nation and they can't understand why Australia has an opposition leader who won't stand up for his.