George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate representing the Prime Minister. I refer the minister to an interview by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr, with Leon Compton on ABC Radio in Hobart yesterday morning where the minister on two occasions, when asked specifically to do so, refused to support the government's proposed media reforms. I also refer the minister to reports this morning by the journalists Peter Hartcher and Mark Kenny that Senator Bob Carr has told people overseas that he has lost confidence in the Prime Minister and that the minister for aged care, Mr Mark Butler, has also lost confidence in the Prime Minister. Does the fact that two senior members of the cabinet refused to publicly express their confidence in the Prime Minister, and that one of the most senior ministers in the government, Senator Bob Carr, has said that that is because of the media package, inevitably mean that the Prime Minister presides over a divided and dysfunctional government?