Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House

(1) notes that:

(a) yesterday, it was revealed the Finance Minister received free flights to Singapore from Helloworld, which he booked by calling the CEO of this ASX listed company directly, just before it was awarded a multimillion dollar whole-of-government contract by the Minister's own Department;

(b) today, it's been reported that US Ambassador Joe Hockey – who has a million dollar shareholding in Helloworld – helped a Helloworld subsidiary lobby for the Embassy's travel contract;

(c) the CEO of Helloworld and one of its largest shareholders Andrew Burnes is a Liberal Party heavyweight and current Liberal Party Treasurer, with connections to a number of Liberal Party politicians;

(d) the Finance Minister told Senate Estimates yesterday that he had "a close personal relationship" with Mr Burnes;

(e) Mr Burnes was previously a colleague of the now Prime Minister during the Prime Minister's time at Tourism Australia;

(f) since being awarded Government contracts, the share price of Helloworld has skyrocketed, making shareholders like Mr Hockey and Mr Burnes rich; and

(g) this morning, it was reported that the Herald Sun asked almost all of the 82 Liberal MPs in Parliament whether they had received free travel from Helloworld, but only 14 said they had not; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to investigate and report to the House how far this Helloworld scandal reaches into his Government.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Rankin from moving the following motion forthwith:

  That the House:

  (1) notes that:

  (a) yesterday, it was revealed the Finance Minister received free flights to Singapore from Helloworld, which he booked by calling the CEO of this ASX listed company directly, just before it was awarded a multimillion dollar whole-of-government contract by the Minister's own Department;

  (b) today, it's been reported that US Ambassador Joe Hockey—who has a million dollar shareholding in Helloworld – helped a Helloworld subsidiary lobby for the Embassy's travel contract;

  (c) the CEO of Helloworld and one of its largest shareholders Andrew Burnes is a Liberal Party heavyweight and current Liberal Party Treasurer, with connections to a number of Liberal Party politicians;

  (d) the Finance Minister told Senate Estimates yesterday that he had 'a close personal relationship' with Mr Burnes;

  (e) Mr Burnes was previously a colleague of the now Prime Minister during the Prime Minister's time at Tourism Australia;

  (f) since being awarded Government contracts, the share price of Helloworld has skyrocketed, making shareholders like Mr Hockey and Mr Burnes rich; and

  (g) this morning, it was reported that the Herald Sun asked almost all of the 82 Liberal MPs in Parliament whether they had received free travel from Helloworld, but only 14 said they had not; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to investigate and report to the House how far this Helloworld scandal reaches into his Government.

These are very serious issues that we're raising in the parliament. They are far too serious to be dismissed, to be laughed off and to be ignored by this arrogant and out-of-touch government.

This is a very Liberal scandal that we're dealing with. It has all of the stink and all of the stench of a very Liberal scandal. It's got all the mates at the top end of town, all the insider deals that lock out ordinary working people, and all of the ingredients of what we have come to expect from this government opposite, which always governs for the top end of the town at the expense of people who work and struggle in this country. It's a very, very Liberal scandal.

What we've seen today in this House is the alternative universe that those opposite inhabit. The alternative universe that those opposite inhabit is where it's entirely normal, when you want to book the 3.30 flight out of Perth, for you to ring up the CEO of an ASX listed company, and where you don't actually notice when someone else picks up a $3,000 tab for you—where you don't notice that it hasn't come out of your credit card. The alternative universe that those opposite occupy is where there's one set of rules for their rich Liberal Party mates and another set of rules for ordinary Australians in communities that we represent right around this country.

There are so many things today that the Prime Minister and his sidekick, his offsider, the member for Sturt, were unable to explain. There were so many things they were unable to explain. They couldn't provide a simple answer to a simple question about whether the documents exist which prove that Mr Hockey asked one of the embassy officials to take a meeting with the company at the centre of this scandal. When the member for Sturt was asked about this, he basically told the House, 'Look, when we get around to checking it out, we'll see how we go.' That's not good enough. The Australian people deserve answers about this latest grubby scandal that is engulfing the government that sits opposite us today.

There are so many aspects to this but, from his answers today, there's a lot of explaining that the Prime Minister needs to do. He has scurried out of the House. He has gone to hide in his office. He said today:

I'm advised that Mr Hockey did not instruct staff to meet QBT or any other companies in relation to the tender, and, as part of normal business …

And what the Prime Minister needs to explain when he next speaks, or when the member for Sturt does, is why he is claiming that Mr Hockey didn't request embassy staff to meet with QBT at all. This is a very serious issue here. The Prime Minister is denying something of which there are reports of documents which exist from officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That is a very, very serious matter and that's why we need to suspend standing orders, to get to the bottom of these very, very important issues.

Everybody in this House and everybody who has followed this scandal knows where it began. It began with the Minister for Finance booking the 3:30 out of Perth or whatever it was by ringing the CEO of a company, not understanding when the $3,000 bill was paid for by someone else, despite the fact those opposite are all chasing people on government payments, aren't they? They notice every cent that goes into a recipient's account, don't they, but $3,000 doesn't come out of the Finance Minister's account and it's no big deal. That's the alternative universe those opposite occupy.

We know where this scandal began but we don't yet know where it ends. And I don't think those opposite know where it ends yet either. There are a lot more questions to be asked and a lot more questions to be answered. What really gave it away in question time today, when we started asking about the travel arrangements between Mr Burnes and others, were the ashen faces right along the frontbench. All these people were desperately hoping the next question wasn't to them. I saw it. The member for Flinders, I thought, was particularly revealing. I'd love to know more about that, but we'll get to all of those questions in due course.

Those opposite have started talking a lot about a chum bucket, haven't they? This scandal, which I'm going to call 'chumgate', involves so many Liberal Party chums, doesn't it? So many Liberal Party chums were involved in chumgate. Right up and down the frontbench and beyond, all the way into the cheap seats, there are a lot of chums involved in this scandal. And we're going to get to the bottom of chumgate, aren't we? We're going to get to the bottom of this scandal, because the only difference between a chum bucket and the Liberal Party is the bucket itself. There are a lot of chums involved in this scandal.

Time won't permit me going to all the other reasons why this is important but just think about it for a moment. Even in the last few months, when we were talking about the awarding of big government contracts, those opposite just can't help themselves—half a billion dollars to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation they didn't ask for; half a billion dollars to Paladin group, which is registered to a beach shack on Kangaroo Island or some such. They can't get it right yet they want us to trust them to make a good decision on offshore visa processing. And when the Prime Minister's own friend is intimately involved in one of the bids, we know how this movie ends. We know how they roll on that side of the House when it comes to the awarding of big government contracts, and the Australian people are very worried about it.

While all this is going on, while this Liberal government go out of their way to look after their mates at the top end of the town, the Australian people just don't get a look in. Just today, as the shadow Treasurer, the shadow employment minister and others have spoken about, we got a wages figure out today—0.5 per cent; annual, 2.3 per cent. In this country, we have historically low wages growth. We have stagnant wages. People aren't getting a look in. They're not being rewarded for their work. Everything is going up except for wages. Childcare costs are up, power bills are up, people are under-employed, people are in insecure work, and those opposite spend all their time working out how they can work the angle—little insider deals for their rich Liberal Party mates—and doesn't that just say everything about those opposite? If only those opposite spent as much time caring about insecure work or stagnant wages as they spend trying to do insider deals for rich Liberal Party mates, the whole country would be better off. That's what this is about, at the end of the day.

This is a government which is so horrendously out of touch and whose priorities are so warped that when we get a wages number like we did today and have been getting for some months, when we get all the things about insecure work and underemployment, falling consumer confidence, bad business conditions—all of these things that really matter to the Australian economy—what are they up to? They're flying around on free flights, ringing up their mates getting insider deals, doing deals, awarding big government contracts to people that they are intimately involved with in the Liberal Party.

That's why standing orders need to be suspended. We know where this began, but we don't yet know where it ends, and we are going to pursue it until the Australian people get the answers that they need and deserve.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

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

Of course the government will not be agreeing to the suspension of standing orders. That was really one of the weakest performances I have seen in this place in a very long time. This is the man who is apparently the great white hope of the Queensland right wing, the member for Rankin, but his performance was enough to make himself cry—as we know has been the case in the past when he hasn't been able to get his own way, as was exposed by a previous Prime Minister, Mr Rudd. This is one of the weakest cases I have ever seen in this House for condemning a minister or, in this case, the ambassador to Washington DC. It's a straight-out smear and a straight-out slur.

What the Labor Party have been doing in the press gallery, all day today, for anybody who wanted to hear, was bragging about how they've had this story for months. They've known about the Helloworld story for a long time, and they were just waiting to drop it to distract from their own problems, to distract from their woes—which they've created themselves—in the last few weeks. They thought, in coming back to Canberra, they were going to have the government on toast, but they were completely mistaken because the Canberra bubble is not the Australian public. That is not what the people of Australia are talking about. They're not fussed about whether the government doesn't get enough votes for an absolute majority to stop a suspension of standing orders or to pass it. They couldn't care less about that. What they're talking about in the suburbs and on the main streets of Australia are the retiree tax, the housing tax and the $200 billion of taxes that the Labor Party wants to inflict on the Australian economy, on small businesses and on the couples and individuals that the Treasurer has been outlining in question time today and yesterday. They are frightened of a Labor government getting into power.

Pensioners and retirees are frightened of a Labor government getting into power, because they have fixed incomes. When they get to that stage of their life, they work out precisely their standard of living and how they're going to be able to live. They put a little bit aside for their grandchildren for Christmas and birthdays. They put a bit aside for their caravan and camping trips. They put a bit aside for charities. If you talk to almost any person who's on the board of a charity in Australia, they will tell you that, if they look at the breakdown of donations to their charity, there are a huge number of small amounts of money—$25, $50, $100, $200—donated by older Australians, retirees and pensioners, who think that, because they live in the greatest country in the world and because they've done well and they've been able to look after themselves in their retirement, they should give something back, to a charity. They will be the first expenses to go because of Labor's retiree tax.

Let's just turn to the issue itself, this pathetic case that was put by the member for Rankin. The facts are that the ambassador to Washington declared his shareholding in Helloworld before the tender process for the Australian embassy in Washington travel services commenced. The tender process commenced with a register for expressions of interest advertised in August 2018. Mr Hockey has had no role in the tender process. He declared his business interests in accordance with the DFAT guidelines. The Australian embassy staff meeting with QBT on 26 April 2017 was not in relation to the tender process. QBT was then, and continues to be, a travel provider for DFAT through whole-of-government supplier arrangements. Mr Hockey declared his business interest in Helloworld to embassy staff ahead of that meeting. He did not instruct staff to meet QBT or any other companies in relation to the tender. As part of the normal business, Australian embassy staff have met and corresponded with a range of travel providers to discuss the embassy's travel requirements. They are the facts.

Helloworld has put out a statement today to the Australian stock exchange—not to The Guardian, not to the ABC, not to the Fairfax press and not to the Labor Party machine men who are trying to distract the Australian public from their complete failure on border protection and taxes. No, it was to the Australian stock exchange. There is a very high standard required if you declare something to the Australian stock exchange.

An honourable member: What did they declare?

I will tell you what they declared. They said:

At no time has Ambassador Hockey or Helloworld CEO Andrew Burnes discussed the DFAT tender and neither Mr Hockey nor Mr Burnes have had any involvement in the tender process.

Mr Burnes did not request the meeting with DFAT personnel in the United States.

It's absolutely clear that what Labor has tried to do is to come up with a farrago of lies, a tissue campaign, to try to create a smear and a slur to distract the people from the real issues that are coming at this next election. The real issues of the next election are who do you trust to run the Australian economy; who do you trust to deliver a budget surplus, which Labor has never delivered since 1989; who do you trust on border protection and to protect our borders so that the ADF doesn't have to work on the jobs in the northern reaches, protecting our borders, and can actually get on with the job that they're trained for; and who do you trust to deliver the services that Australians expect and the infrastructure that they require in a modern economy? It isn't the Labor Party.

It is the Liberal and National parties, the parties that have a very clear record over many decades of fixing the messes that Labor creates when they unfortunately get the chance to be in government. It happened with the Whitlam government. It happened with the Keating and Hawke governments. It happened with the Rudd and Gillard governments. It's very important that this election is decided on the issues that matter to people in the street, in the main streets of the country towns and the suburbs of Australia, not inside this Canberra bubble, which the Labor Party revel in and the Australian people don't give two hoots about.

Finally, it is the height of audacity for the Labor Party to try to lecture the Liberal and National parties about fiscal rectitude and integrity. It took a royal commission for the Leader of the Opposition to declare donations of very high value that he had suddenly forgotten about as soon as he received them. We have all been in campaigns; we know how to raise money. Tens of thousands of dollars is a very large donation. I'm always happy when I get a $500 donation from a small business person who wants to stop the Labor Party getting into office. Tens of thousands of dollars is a very significant donation, but the member for Maribyrnong forgot all about it. It took eight years and a royal commission for the Leader of the Opposition to be forced to declare what is required of every member of the House and the political parties that we represent.

We're not going to be lectured to by the member for Maribyrnong about these kinds of issues of financial integrity. We're not going to be lectured to by the Labor Party. In the Keneally government, they ended up with almost as many people in prison in the ministry as out of it by the end of their government. There was Ian Macdonald, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid, although not all of those people have gone to prison. These people were exposed by ICAC for the most heinous activities when they were in government in the New South Wales government. Those opposite would like that all to be forgotten, because they have a New South Wales election coming up in a few weeks' time. But if they want to put integrity back on the political agenda in New South Wales, go right ahead. The Berejiklian government would love to have that debate reheated, about Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Ian Macdonald.

There's the relationship of those opposite with the union moment, with people like John Setka, the CFMMEU and Joe McDonald. Kevin Rudd turned his back on unions like that. Kevin Rudd threw Joe McDonald out of the Labor Party. The current Leader of the Opposition has brought all of those people into the centre of decision-making in the Labor Party. They're deciding on preselections and who should sit in this place. They're deciding on policy. In Victoria, they were brought in to give the Leader of the Opposition the numbers he needed for himself and his faction to take over the Victorian Labor Party, and to elect people like the member for Corio, who's had a big run in the park today. I'm not sure he'll get such a big run in the future, since he decided to put 50,000 jobs in the mining and resources sector in Queensland and elsewhere at risk by saying he wanted the mining and resources sector to collapse internationally, apparently in order to protect the climate.

The Labor Party have had a shocker in the last fortnight. They've had a shocker. The cockiness of the Labor Party in the last six to 12 months—they were so certain they were going to be in the ministerial wing. We're very much looking forward to the election. We believe the Australian public will want to re-elect a government that delivers budget surpluses, low taxes and more jobs.

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

Standing orders should be suspended to enable this motion to be moved because we do need to know just how deep in it this government is—how deep it is in the Helloworld scandal. The coalition government are only in it for themselves. Today, we've had more shocking revelations concerning the Helloworld scandal. Not only is the current finance minister, Senator Cormann, knee deep in this mess but so is the former Treasurer, now ambassador to the United States. That's the same Mr Hockey who famously declared in 2014 that with the election of the Abbott government, 'the age of entitlement is over'. Well, it's well and truly alive with this government, particularly the government frontbench.

The Prime Minister, in his answers in question time, did not go close to justifying the reported conduct of Mr Hockey as our ambassador to the United States. According to the Leader of the House, they have not even begun to investigate the allegations that have appeared in the media. Let's be clear about this: Mr Hockey is one of the 20 largest shareholders in the relevant company. He's one of the 20 largest shareholders, with over $1 million worth of shares. I just want to go back to what the Prime Minister claimed in question time. The Leader of the House repeated this same claim. I'll read it out:

I'm advised that Mr Hockey did not instruct staff to meet QBT or any other companies in relation to the tender, and, as part of normal business …

I'm sorry to say that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House have been misadvised.

I'm going to read from the correspondence from embassy staff, which the Prime Minister should bring in tomorrow if he actually cares at all about probity in government or advising this House properly. This is what the correspondence from embassy staff says: 'Ambassador Hockey has asked that I set up a meeting while you are in Washington on Wednesday. Would you be available at 10.30 am? Hopefully the ambassador can join the meeting, but the minister councillor, Justin McPhillips, who is in charge of the administration at the embassy, will definitely meet with you. If you could advise the names of all those who could come to the meeting, I will advise security.'

An opposition member: Oops!

Uh-oh! As my colleagues behind me are saying, oops! It's actually something the Prime Minister now needs to actually investigate.

Let's think for a moment about Senator Cormann in the other place, who accidently, he claims, took a free flight with his family to Singapore and failed to notice that his credit card hadn't been charged. He pretends that it's totally normal to call up the CEO of a company in order to book your personal travel. Please! Senator Cormann says he's a friend. Well, it's the same CEO, this friend, who is the federal treasurer of the Liberal Party; the same friend, the same CEO, who has donated more than $500,000 to the Liberal Party; and the same CEO whose company share price has soared 170 per cent, I'm told, since the company started to receive government contracts.

This government has form. This government has plenty of form. Let's think about the member for Dickson, who's happy to dole out visas to au pairs for his mates and continues to ignore very serious constitutionally eligibility questions about himself stemming from taxpayer subsidies from his own family childcare business.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The Leader of the House reckons I might run out of material. No risk of that! There is plenty. Let's talk about the member for Fadden, who used his previous ministerial office to help a Liberal donor on a big deal in China. He lost his job for that under former Prime Minister Turnbull, but he's back. He has been rewarded by his flatmate, the Prime Minister, with the role of Assistant Treasurer—not to mention the $40,000 home internet bill. Then we could talk about Senator McKenzie, who happened to buy an apartment while on taxpayer funded travel entitlements. And who can forgot former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and her helicopter ride? It's not surprising that the backbench are following their lead. Just look at the member for Goldstein and his conduct as chair of the House Economics Committee or the current member for Dunkley, who used his position as a member of parliament to spruik a company he subsequently bought shares in.

We definitely need to suspend standing orders. The Prime Minister needs to come clean on just how far this scandal— (Time expired)

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

The time allotted for this debate has concluded.

The question is that the motion moved by the member for Rankin be agreed to.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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