Mr PYNE (Sturt—Manager of Opposition Business) (14:23): I seek leave to move the following motion: That: (1) the House notes the statement that has been made by the Speaker and: (a) suspends so much of the standing and sessional orders as would prevent the Honourable Member for Scullin from performing the duties of the Speaker in the House until the House agrees otherwise; and (b) resolves to appoint the Honourable Member for Scullin to perform the duties of the Speaker in the House when the Speaker is absent from the House. Leave not granted. Mr PYNE: In the absence of leave not being granted, I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Sturt from moving the following motion forthwith: (1) That the House notes the statement that has been made by the Speaker; and (2) Suspends so much of the standing and sessional orders as would prevent the honourable member for Scullin from performing the duties of the Speaker in the House until the House otherwise agrees; and (3) Resolves to appoint the honourable member for Scullin to perform the duties of the Speaker in the House when the Speaker is absent from the House. Madam Deputy Speaker, this motion is not a reflection on you. The opposition believes that the clock should be restarted and that the period from 24 November to today should be repaired for the good of the parliament and the Australian people's confidence in our federal democracy. The coalition is moving this motion because we believe the integrity and standing of the parliament has been seriously damaged since former Speaker Jenkins resigned on 24 November last year and, in spite of the coalition nominating nine government members to take the chair, the member for Fisher was appointed over the objections of the opposition. It is interesting that the Prime Minister did not want to make any comment at all on the Speaker's statement to the House on this day, one of the most unprecedented days in Australia's Commonwealth history. It is because she does not want to be seen to be associated any more with the Speaker that she chose over the member for Scullin and nine other government members. She wants to be as far away from the member for Fisher as she can be, and yet five short months ago the Prime Minister chose the member for Fisher over the member for Scullin and nine members of her own caucus. This motion gives her the opportunity to explain herself to the House, to speak following me in the chamber. The standing of parliament and of politicians has never been lower in the eyes of the Australian public, starting with the backroom deals in late 2010 by the Prime Minister to secure government, the alliance with the Greens and the breach of faith with the Australian people over the promise not to introduce a carbon tax. This was followed by the Prime Minister's failure to require the member for Dobell to make a full explanation to the parliament over the scandal that has engulfed him over his time as National Secretary of the Health Services Union. It took the Prime Minister until 10 days ago to take action over the member for Dobell and she still intends to accept his vote in the chamber. The member for Dobell will continue to prop up her government. The member for Dobell is not good enough for the ALP caucus but is good enough for the Australian parliament. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business is straying from his own motion and I would ask him to return to it. Mr PYNE: I am, Madam Deputy Speaker. The reason I am pointing these matters out is because it is very important for the public to know why the opposition believes that the standing of parliament is now so low that we want to see the clock restarted back to 24 November last year when this whole sorry period began. More recently the Prime Minister's choice to replace Speaker Jenkins—that is, the member for Fisher—has been required to stand down as Speaker while allegations of fraud against the Commonwealth are investigated by the AFP and civil claims of sexual harassment involving him are tested in the Federal Court. What the parliament needs right now is a Speaker who has demonstrated fairness, honour and the respect for the House before. That man is sitting in the House right now. Without reflecting on you at all, Madam Deputy Speaker—as the member for Chisholm and the Deputy Speaker you have been thrust into this unhappy mess, this unedifying circus, through no fault of your own—that man is the member for Scullin. This motion reflects the orthodox reading of the Australian Constitution and our responsibilities as members of parliament. While the standing orders allow for the Deputy Speaker to take the chair if asked to do so by the Speaker or in the absence of the Speaker, they also provide for the Deputy Speaker to be Acting Speaker and that is not the case in the arrangement is being contemplated here. The arrangement contemplated here is that the member for Fisher remains Speaker, continuing to hold the office with its salary and emoluments for an indeterminate period, while the Deputy Speaker is not officially the Acting Speaker but is simply filling in for an indeterminate absence. This is not good enough for the opposition and it should not be good enough or satisfactory for the government or the crossbench members of the House. This arrangement does nothing to repair the standing of the House of Representatives or all of us as members of it. Section 36 of the Constitution requires the House to choose a member to perform the Speaker's duties should he be absent. The motion I am moving today fulfils our responsibilities and demonstrates to the Australian people that we here are taking the necessary first steps to restore the integrity and standing of the parliament. All members should want to support it. No-one in the House could be deaf to the feelings of revulsion and horror in our electorates over the current low standing of this parliament. The cause of this low standing has been the single-minded determination of this Prime Minister to gain and hold power at any cost, which reached its nadir with the despatching of Speaker Jenkins and the suborning of a coalition MP, the member for Fisher, to be Speaker. Do not take just my word for it, Madam Deputy Speaker; the former longstanding Clerk of the Senate, Mr Harry Evans, wrote in the Financial Review: The Slipper affair, consisting of his elevation to the speakership of the House of Representatives as a manoeuvre to improve the government's numbers, followed by his standing aside under the cloud of serious allegations of illegality and impropriety, is rightly regarded as a low point in partisan politics. Then we have this statement: When I resigned the party's leadership in 2005, I was convinced its core values— those of the Labor Party— were being corroded by the growth of factionalism and union control. … … … Unhappily, my 2005 prophecy has been fulfilled. The erosion of Labor's moral core now has a public face: its association with Thomson and Slipper. I cannot imagine anything more gut-wrenching for the party faithful, the salt-of-the-earth types who grew up with the legends of working class decency under Ben Chifley and John Curtin. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will return to the suspension before the chair. Mr PYNE: Those were the statements of Mark Latham, the former member of the once great Labor Party. Then we have Michelle Grattan, not always known to be a supporter of the coalition— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business needs to refer to why a suspension is required. Mr PYNE: Madam Deputy Speaker, this is the most urgent matter before the House and that is why standing orders must be suspended, because the integrity of the parliament has been so damaged and traduced, and I am pointing out to the House why it is that this matter should take precedence over all other matters today until it is resolved. Michelle Grattan, writing in the Age, said: When Peter Slipper's alleged behaviour has the community's hair standing on end, the PM cut to the core. 'Having Mr Slipper be Speaker has enabled the government to do some important things on behalf of Australian families,' she declared. In other words, Slipper has strengthened the government's numbers. Never mind the means. Think of the ends. Michelle Grattan went on to say: The government has entered a sort of no man's land. The atmosphere is reminiscent of those weeks in 1975, under the Whitlam government, when no-one was sure of what would happen. This morass is entirely of this Prime Minister's making. There was absolutely no necessity for the Prime Minister to despatch Speaker Jenkins on 24 November last year and put the member for Fisher into the speakership except for one motivating reason: her desire to hang on to power at all costs. And we are paying the price. Now is the time for ALP members of good conscience—and they do exist—to search their consciences and realise that the best hope for the Labor Party's future is to turn their faces against the politics of sleaze and greed and power at all costs and to vote to restore— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business has completely strayed from the suspension. Mr PYNE: Madam Deputy Speaker, I am pointing out why the suspension should be carried, because this is the opportunity to restore the integrity of the parliament by voting for this motion, and I call on any member of good conscience on the Labor side who are hanging their heads rather than facing this suspension motion today to put the parliament first and to protect the interests of the Labor Party's future by supporting this motion. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is the motion seconded?