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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to his comments today regarding a staff member employed by the member for Hughes who has been the subject of multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls since 2014. The Prime Minister said today, 'I have long expressed to Mr Kelly my concerns about that staff member.' Given the Prime Minister's long knowledge, why did the Prime Minister do nothing about it for years?

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

As you'd know, any employment matter of a member of parliament is a matter—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left! The Prime Minister will pause for a second. I say to members interjecting, like the member for McMahon and the member for Hotham, that I'm not going to be put in a position where members are loudly interjecting when it's my job to listen to the question and to the answer. That's the task I face every day, irrespective of the views of members interjecting. I simply can't do that properly. If interjections keep occurring, like they just did, those members will be ejected. Interjections are disorderly in every form. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

The matters that I raised with the member for Hughes when we met several weeks ago related, of course, to the various statements he had made concerning the government's response to the pandemic and the health measures put in place. It's also true that, in the last few weeks, I became aware of some other matters which the Department of Finance—

Opposition members interjecting—

I'm happy to answer the question, Mr Speaker.

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

The Prime Minister has the call.

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

We have initiated a process that is looking into those precise matters that came to my attention a few weeks ago.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The interjections of the Leader of the Opposition seem to confuse the fact that I have long held issues regarding a particular staff member and their performance in that office, not related to the issues he referred to in asking that question. That is a matter that I've raised on numerous occasions, but that reached a more serious point in recent weeks. I raised those matters with the member for Hughes. He undertook to take certain actions on behalf of those discussions. Those actions were not taken. The member for Hughes has taken his decision today.