Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney) (15:06): I second the motion. We should suspend standing orders because there have been a number of failures that must be dealt with urgently by this House. In the first place, there has been a complete failure of good governance. David Murray, the outgoing chairman of the Future Fund, actually said: The decision has been left late every time … You need to give people information and you need to make decisions in a timely way. It helps to govern the organisation itself. And the government has yet again procrastinated about the appointment of people to run the most important fund of money that Australian taxpayers have outside of the mainstream budget. But it goes further. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation and the Treasurer— The SPEAKER: The honourable member will return to the motion before the chair. Mr HOCKEY: The Minister for Finance and Deregulation and the Treasurer have sought to engage outside consultants to appoint a chairman of the Future Fund. They went through a process—this is why standing orders must be suspended—to find the most appropriate person. They engaged an outside consulting firm and, when they were not satisfied with that, they engaged Mr Gonski to give them a recommendation on whom the guardians themselves believed to be the very best person to chair the Future Fund. Mr Gonski reported back to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation that the view of the guardians is in fact that Peter Costello is the best person to do it. Standing orders must be suspended because the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, only a few days ago, led people to believe—and I am prepared to quote her—that there was no recommendation from anyone to appoint Peter Costello. But the fact of the matter is that, even though the Minister for Finance and Deregulation deliberately misled not only the Australian people— The SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member is aware that it is disorderly to reflect on members of this chamber or the other place. The member will withdraw. Mr HOCKEY: I withdraw. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation has repeatedly said that Mr Gonski had made no recommendation. On the ABC's World Today yesterday, she said: He made no recommendations. She said that on ABC Radio yesterday. It is now revealed in today's Australian that Mr Gonski did in fact make recommendations. The article quotes Mr Gonski as saying: My job was to advise the government on what the board thought. The board said they wanted an insider and they designated by majority that the insider was Peter. 'Peter' means Peter Costello. This is why standing orders must be suspended. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation is running around saying that there was no recommendation from David Gonski about the chairmanship of the Future Fund, yet Mr Gonski himself, who was engaged by the government, has now declared that in fact he did make a recommendation—that recommendation being Mr Costello. Suspending standing orders is so urgent because this represents the way this government operates. We have to stop this government from more incompetence; we have to stop this government from any more acts of poor corporate governance involving taxpayers' money—and we are doing so. Brian Watson has belled the cat. He said— The SPEAKER: The honourable member will return to the suspension motion. Mr HOCKEY: We must suspend standing orders because Mr Watson has said that Mr Gonski interviewed the members of the Future Fund in confidence to get their views on the Future Fund and the membership of the Future Fund. Now Mr Gonski has been appointed to chair the Future Fund—such practice is widely regarded as poor corporate governance in Australia. This government treats Peter Costello with contempt. This government treats Australian taxpayers with contempt. Do not let the Australian government treat people with contempt in future. Get back to good corporate governance, get out of the job and let us govern. (Time expired)