Jim Chalmers is a Labor MP and Shadow Minister for Finance.
Jim Chalmers is attempting to move this motion:
I seek leave to move the following motion – that the House,
one, notes that yesterday it was revealed the finance minister received free flights to Singapore from Helloworld, which he booked by calling the CEO of this ASX-listed company directly, just before it was awarded a multimillion-dollar whole-of-government contract by the minister’s own department,
(b) today, it has been reported that US ambassador Joe Hockey, who has a million-dollar shareholding in Helloworld, helped a Helloworld subsidiary lobby for the embassy’s travel contract,
(c) the CEO of Helloworld and one of its largest shareholders, Andrew Burnes, is a Liberal party heavyweight and currently Liberal party treasurer with connections to a number of Liberal party politicians,
(d) the finance minister told Senate estimates yesterday that he had “a close personal relationship” with Mr Burnes,
(e) Mr Burnes was previously a colleague of the now-prime minister during the prime minister’s time at Tourism Australia,
(f) since being awarded government contracts, the share price of Helloworld has skyrocketed, making shareholders like Mr Hockey and Mr Burns rich,
and (g) it was reported that the Herald Sun asked almost all of the 82 Liberal MPs in parliament whether they had received free travel from Helloworld, but only 14 said that they had not,
and, (2) therefore calls on the prime minister to investigate and report to the House how far this Helloworld scandal reaches into his government.
He is denied on the voices.
Updated
Jim Chalmers with the Nick Champion question (just cut down) to Scott Morrison:
Is the prime minister confident that trips like the one by the minister for home affairs and Joe Hockey with Helloworld’s CEO and Liberal treasurer Mr Andrew Burnes to Las Vegas, were paid at the full commercial rate?
Morrison:
Again, Mr Speaker, the member comes here and just makes assertions …
He makes … and then he asks me to respond as if those assertions are true, Mr Speaker. No, he is not asking – it is said to me, how dare he answer the question, he is not asking a question, he is making an assertion about something he hasn’t even established as a fact and on that basis, Mr Speaker, I don’t agree necessarily with the presumption of the question and therefore, on what basis should I allow a member to come and simply just come to the despatch box, cast aspersions on people in this chamber and the other chamber and former members of the chamber simply because the Labor party wants to distract attention from the fact they’ve come into this place and undermined Australia’s border protection regime, Mr Speaker?
We know, because they’ve been boasting around the media for some time, that they have had this little issue for some time in the drawer and when the pressure is on, they pull it out.
He finishes before Tony Burke can ask him about relevance.
For those asking, all of the crossbench, except Bob Katter, who was not in the chamber, voted with Labor to suspend standing orders.
Labor had lost three MPs (I think) to 94a
Ayes – 71
Noes – 71
But there is no absolute majority, so the motion fails.
AndScott Morrisoncalls an end to question time.
I think Jim Chalmers, being only forty years and a very impressive speaker, might become quite an asset for the Labor Party in the Australian Parliament. You can have a look here about the two books he has written so far:
https://auntielive.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/jim-chalmers-makes-the-case-for-a-fair-go/
All Politicians in Australia today Uta, view a government position as a Political career, every one of them are only interested in financial benefits and gains, not there for the good of the country or the Australian people
😦 This is a sad state of affairs!