Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 851 standing in my name for today. The terms of the amendment were circulated in the chamber earlier.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a) notes the allegations made by the daughters of the late Dorothy Hewett that she pimped her then-minor daughters for sex;

(b) further notes that one daughter described their home as 'a brothel without payment' and the sisters named perpetrators including:

  (i) the late former Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis,

  (ii) pop artist Martin Sharp, and

  (iii) British erotic photographer David Hamilton;

(c) also notes that the University of Western Australia runs a $10,000 annual prize named the 'Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript', which is an award supported in 2019 by The Saturday Paper and the Copyright Agency; and

(d) in light of the seriousness of the allegations, calls upon the Education Minister to seek assurances from the University of Western Australia that it will:

  (i) rename the award, or

  (ii) in the event that naming rights are a condition of the prize, to suspend the award until the allegations are investigated and resolved.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The allegations detailed in this motion are abhorrent and have rightly attracted condemnation. The officer of the Minister for Education and Training has raised these concerns with the University of Western Australia.

Question agreed to.