Mr PYNE (Sturt—Manager of Opposition Business) (15:00): Madam Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion, and the motion is: 'That this House calls on the Prime Minister to outline in the parliament today all involvement that the New South Wales Labor Party has had in providing financial and in-kind support to the Member for Dobell since the story concerning his misuse of union funds first broke in the Fairfax press on 8 April 2009, including but not limited to the settlement of the cost of defamation proceedings, the legal costs involved in those proceedings, the preparation of his response to the Fair Work Australia inquiry and all other matters.' Leave not granted. Mr PYNE: I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Sturt moving immediately—That That this House calls on the Prime Minister to outline in the Parliament today all involvement that the New South Wales Labor Party has had in providing financial and ‘in kind’ support to the Member for Dobell since the story concerning his misuse of union funds first broke in the Fairfax Press on 8 April 2009, including, but not limited to the settlement of the cost of defamation proceedings, the legal costs involved in those proceedings, the preparation of his response to the Fair Work Australia inquiry and all other matters. Mr Laming: Where are you going? We're talking to you! The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): The member for Bowman will leave the chamber under standing order 94(a) The member for Bowman then left the chamber. Mr PYNE: Standing orders must be suspended and this motion must be debated because the answers the Prime Minister gave in question time today could only be described as evasive and tricky. The Prime Minister must explain every aspect of the Labor Party's deal with the member for Dobell because, without the deal, she would not be Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must explain every aspect of the Labor Party's arrangements with the member for Dobell because, by keeping the member for Dobell in parliament, by paying his legal fees and avoiding his bankruptcy, she maintains his vote in this parliament. Without that vote, the government would fall and she would not be Prime Minister. Nothing could be more important for us to debate after question time today than the Prime Minister's hold on power with the pillar of support that is the member for Dobell. This is properly a matter for the parliament to consider. The reason why the parliament should consider it can be found in the admission in the first article about this matter, in a long-forgotten story in the Daily Telegraph in August 2011 by Andrew Clennell, repeated today in the News Ltd press. When Labor sources were asked why they paid the legal costs of the member for Dobell they said: We paid because if he hadn't he'd be bankrupt … Why is that important? It is important because if he was bankrupt he would not be able to sit in the chamber, and if he did not sit in the chamber and vote for the Labor Party this Prime Minister would not hold office today. So we are in a very murky area. Some people would call it a quite inappropriate conflict of interest for the member for Dobell—him relying entirely for staying out of bankruptcy on the deal that he has made with the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales to pay what is hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): The member for Sturt will return to the motion before the chair. Mr PYNE: The reason why standing orders need to be suspended is that the Prime Minister in question time today was given the opportunity on at least two occasions to outline what she and her office knew about the arrangements with the New South Wales Labor Party and she absolutely declined to do so. She came up with a form of words about how it was not her responsibility, her staff's responsibility or the department's responsibility. But she was not asked about whose responsibility it was; she was asked what she knew about these arrangements and whether she could guarantee that no member of her office was involved in the arrangements between the member for Dobell and the New South Wales Labor Party. Those of us who have been in this House for some time know exactly why the Prime Minister declined—because the answer was that she could not guarantee that her office was not involved in these arrangements with the New South Wales Labor Party. She knew what we all know, and that is that this has been part of the protection racket around the member for Dobell for three years. F or three years the Labor Party has been paying the legal fees of the member for Dobell. In other words, this illegitimate government—which relies on the cross-benchers, made up of disgruntled coalition members of parliament, former, disgraced Labor members of parliament, a green Independent and another Independent—are clinging to power by paying the legal fees of the member for Dobell to stave off his inevitable bankruptcy. They admitted it in the paper two years ago and they admitted it today in the News Ltd press. Mark Latham showed that he certainly knows his political party when he said: The tragedy for progressive politics is that there are scores of Craig Thomsons across the labour movement. He is the cultural norm, not an isolated peccadillo. The party that gave us Tom Domican has now given us Craig Thomson. It is a matter for the parliament to consider, because nothing could be more important— Mr Albanese: Madam Deputy Speaker, I would ask that that be withdrawn. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business has stepped over the line and will withdraw. Mr PYNE: I will withdraw in the interests of allowing the debate to continue. Firstly, the member for Dobell rode on the backs of the 77,000 members of the Health Services Union, taking their money and spending their money on personal matters—on fine dining, on overseas trips and on his election campaign. Now he is riding on the backs of the 8,500 members of the New South Wales Labor Party, who pay their dues, stand at the polling booths, put up the election posters, come to the fundraisers and buy Johno Johnson's raffle tickets. Yet their money—Johno Johnson's raffle tickets—is being spent today on the legal fees of the member for Dobell. How ashamed he must be. The standing orders must be suspended so that the Prime Minister can come into the House and outline, for the good of the parliament, the arrangements between the New South Wales Labor Party and the member for Dobell that keep the Prime Minister clinging to power. What do we know already about this matter? We know that in 2011 New South Wales Labor paid $150,000 of undeclared funds to settle the member for Dobell's legal actions against the Fairfax press. We know that New South Wales Labor has paid an undisclosed sum, since September last year, for the member for Dobell's legal fees in relation to the Fair Work Australia inquiry into him—an undisclosed sum which only came to light today, again when it was reported in the News Limited press. Last night, the member for Dobell updated the Register of Members' Interests when he got an inquiry from the media about it. His story is that he only got the money two weeks ago. The New South Wales Labor Party story is that they have been paying since last September. Those of us who are lawyers know that we do not usually bill every eight months. We tend to bill on work in progress every month. So the possibility that Holding Redlich waited eight months to register their invoice to the New South Wales Labor Party is utterly unbelievable. I do not stand up for lawyers every day, but they are very good billers, I can assure you of that. In fact, only on 20 April, Holding Redlich was writing to the Senate Legislation Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. They were being paid by the New South Wales Labor Party in order to stop the production— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Manager of Opportunity business will desist using a prop at this point. He will put it down. Mr PYNE: I will. The reason they wrote that letter to the inquiry was to ask the inquiry not to release the Fair Work Australia inquiry report. So even on 20 April, paid for by the New South Wales Labor Party, they were trying to cover up the Fair Work Australia inquiry report on behalf of their political masters in the Labor Party. That is what the Prime Minister needs to explain to the House. She needs to explain what her office knew about this and why it is that in the same week that she is claiming to take credit for the suspension of the member of Dobell the New South Wales Labor Party is paying lawyers fees to write letters to try and cover up the Fair Work Australia inquiry. We also know that in 2011 the New South Wales Labor Party was making loans to the member for Dobell of undisclosed sums in order to keep him from going into bankruptcy. I yet again agree with the former Leader of the Opposition Mark Latham when he wrote about this scandal involving the member for Dobell: 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. I find it hard to believe that the member for Grayndler can get up again and defend the member for Dobell. Perhaps the so-called fabled light on the hill of Ben Chifley—the Leader of the Opposition referred to it recently—has turned into the red light on the hill, to which all the union leaders are running with their credit cards! The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is the motion seconded?