Wednesday November 28, 2012
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has broken his question time drought with a query on foreign affairs.
Mr Abbott on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Julia Gillard about Australia's decision to abstain from a vote in the UN general assembly on a resolution to give Palestine observer status there.
Ms Gillard seized the opportunity to point out she had been asked 18 questions by Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop, who is foreign affairs spokeswoman, regarding her past work as a lawyer.
'This is the first question on foreign affairs and where's the deputy leader of the opposition to be seen?' the prime minister asked parliament.
'Well, nowhere, like she's been seen nowhere today.'
Ms Bishop was now 'an embarrassment', Ms Gillard said.
'The deputy leader of the opposition is now an embarrassment to the leader of the opposition and the opposition generally,' she said.
Ms Bishop resumed her grilling of Ms Gillard over her actions as a young lawyer in the 1990s, asking what advice she had given to her boyfriend at the time, Bruce Wilson, regarding control of a union fatal accident and death fund.
Ms Gillard said she had dealt with the issue previously and launched a counterattack on Ms Bishop.
'Really, I think the issue today is ... at what point will she apologise for making an absurd allegation against me yesterday, then denying the making of it, and then being forced into a humiliating retreat,' she said.
Ms Bishop on Tuesday told reporters she had one conversation with former Australian Workers' Union bagman Ralph Blewitt, a colleague of Mr Wilson's in the 1990s, at a cafe in Melbourne last Friday.
On Wednesday, in response to media reports she had spoken to Mr Blewitt two days earlier, Ms Bishop said she spoke to an unknown man last Wednesday after former Sydney radio host Mike Smith had telephoned her to tell her he was at dinner with someone who wanted to talk to her.
'When will the deputy leader apologise to the press gallery for having misled them yesterday about her degree of contact with Mr Blewitt?' Ms Gillard said.
'And when will the leader of the opposition, who is responsible for this campaign of sleaze and smear, acknowledge it for exactly what it has been?'
Ms Bishop continued questioning Ms Gillard about the past, while the prime minister repeatedly accused Mr Abbott of hiding behind his deputy.
Ms Gillard said she had repeatedly dealt with the accusations in great detail.
'Please stop embarrassing yourself, it is just getting too painful to watch,' Ms Gillard said.
She challenged Mr Abbott to get up and ask the questions himself.
She was twice told to sit down by Speaker Anna Burke for not keeping to the point.
Ms Gillard said Ms Bishop had run out of questions on the AWU slush fund.
'She is at the bottom of the mud bucket now.'
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the government would not be lectured on ethics and morality by Ms Bishop, who previously worked as a lawyer for CSR opposing compensation claims for victims dying of asbestos diseases.
Mr Combet said labour law firms such as Ms Gillard's former firm Slater Gordon had worked very hard to fight for asbestos victims.
So too did the union movement, getting no help from former Liberal governments.
'On the other side of the chamber, the deputy opposition leader ... acted for a company against victims, to oppose their compensation,' Mr Combet told the house.
'She acted for a company that had this to say in 1977: Even if the workers die like flies, even if the workers die like flies, they will never be able to pin it on CSR' - that's who you (Ms Bishop) acted for.'
Ms Bishop said she was at university in 1977. But Mr Combet was undeterred.
'There has been a lot said about morality and the conduct of lawyers acting on behalf of their clients, where is the morality in that, to represent a company with that sort of view,' he said.
He said the Labor government had a proud record of cleaning up asbestos and fighting on behalf of victims.
'We will not be lectured to, not be lectured to, by the deputy leader of the opposition leader about ethics or morality. Or you (Tony Abbott), hiding behind her.'
