Mr FITZGIBBON (Hunter) (15:01): It is. Not without cause, I have often said that the Deputy Prime Minister is all hat, no cowboy, and now we are entitled to question his right to even wear the hat. We've known of the secret coalition deal for some time, but now, after 10 years, we learn of the secret citizen. Australia currently has an illegitimate agriculture minister, an illegitimate Deputy Prime Minister, an illegitimate resources minister, an illegitimate water minister and an illegitimate minister for northern Australia—all allegedly some of the Prime Minister's key interests. Minister Canavan must be feeling pretty sad for himself today. No doubt Minister Canavan thought he was doing a pretty good job. We had a slightly different view, but certainly Minister Canavan thought he was part of a cabinet which liked him and supported him. He is, of course, a protege of the Deputy Prime Minister. He was entitled to believe that the Deputy Prime Minister and, indeed, the Prime Minister might have stood beside him in his hour of need, but it wasn't the case—dispatched on the moment of confession. But it is a different story in the case of the Deputy Prime Minister. And why is that so? Well, there is one simple reason, called the numbers in the House of Representatives. That is the difference between Senator Canavan and the Deputy Prime Minister, who continues to sit in the House today with every intention of continuing to exercise his vote on behalf of the Australian community. I can take up a lot of my time reflecting on the poor performance of this minister over the course of the last four years. Everywhere I travel in this country they're saying the same thing— The SPEAKER: The member for Hunter will resume his seat for a second. The motion is to suspend standing orders, and the member for Hunter needs to speak to why the standing orders should be suspended. I give a lot of latitude on these motions, but he's now straying beyond why standing orders should be suspended. Mr FITZGIBBON: Obviously it's urgent that standing orders be suspended, because we have a Deputy Prime Minister sitting in this chamber with us now, with every intention—with the imprimatur of his Prime Minister—to exercise his vote in this place, illegitimately, certainly under a cloud, until the High Court makes its determination, a determination referred by his own Prime Minister. As the Manager of Opposition Business said earlier today, you don't refer the matter if you're sure of the answer; you refer the matter if you're unsure of the answer. I won't spend too much time reflecting on people's disappointment in this minister's past performances. But everywhere I go—and this is the urgency out in the Australian community and the reason this motion is urgent—what they're more concerned about is what the future will look like, whether they are going to be represented by a minister who has the legal capacity to represent their interests and who, over the coming months, will be making decisions in each of those portfolios which are critical to their interests. And, of course, their interests are also the Australian interests. We recently had an outbreak of white spot disease in the prawn sector. When these biosecurity risks emerge we need someone on the watch, someone on the job with the power to legitimately deal with these issues in a legally binding way, and all those out there in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector are asking themselves whether they have such a person on that watch. As we speak there are boats sitting off the coast of China with frozen beef on board because they have been denied access to the China market. When these things occur, they need to know, Prime Minister, that they have an agriculture minister on watch who is able to deal with these issues in a full legal capacity. And those exporters of that beef today will be asking themselves whether (1) they have a minister representing them with that legal capacity and (2) whether they have a minister who is taken seriously in China and in other export markets. Do you really believe, Prime Minister, that we are on a level playing field when you have an illegitimate minister negotiating with trading partners and when our exports are blocked off coast? The Deputy Prime Minister—and indeed you, Prime Minister—is very fond of talking about the beef sector. He—again, illegitimately—takes credit for higher beef prices. We know how funny that must be to the cockies out there, the producers. But what we do need is someone who's taken seriously on export markets, and in this Deputy Prime Minister—this minister—we certainly have no such person.