26th Oct 2017, 3:04 PM – Representatives Motions - Minister for Employment - Suspend the rules

The majority voted against a motion to suspend the rules (known as standing orders) to allow a vote to happen. The motion was introduced by Labor MP Tony Burke.

Motion text

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes:

(a) yesterday morning, the media aired an allegation the Employment Minister's Office had leaked the raids, which allowed television crews to turn up to the raids before the police did;

(b) by midday yesterday, the Employment Minister had five times denied that her office had been involved in leaking the raids;

(c) at the Prime Minister's Question Time briefing yesterday, attended by the Employment Minister and the Senior Media Adviser who has now resigned for leaking the raids, the Prime Minister, according to the Government's account, failed to ask a single question about the involvement of the Minister's office in leaking the raids;

(d) at 6.10 pm, Alice Workman of Buzzfeed reported that journalists received a leak about the raids from the Employment Minister's office before the raids began;

(e) at 7.30 pm, after the truth had been exposed, only then did the Employment Minister finally admit that she had misled the Senate on five separate occasions; and

(f) during the utegate scandal, the now Prime Minister himself said that misleading the Parliament "is an offence that should result in the dismissal or resignation of a Minister. It is perfectly clear"; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to:

(a) sack the Employment Minister for breaching Ministerial Standards by repeatedly misleading the Senate; and

(b) explain to the House his involvement, his office's involvement and his Government's involvement in this serious matter where the publicly stated version of events doesn’t add up.