Private Members' Business

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Watson MP Tony Burke, which means it failed. The motion was to suspend the usual procedural rules of Parliament (known as standing orders) so that a vote could take place.

Motion text

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) on the evening of 23 October 2019, the Guardian reported the Minister for Emissions Reduction had used incorrect figures from the City of Sydney Annual Report 2017-18 in a letter to the Lord Mayor of Sydney;

(b) the next day, the Minister told the House "The document was drawn directly from the City of Sydney's website";

(c) despite the Minister's claim, all the evidence to date is that no such document ever existed on the website, the altered document has only ever been produced by the Minister's office and the doctored figures have only ever been used by the Minister in his official ministerial correspondence; including:

(i) City of Sydney metadata which shows the Annual Report on its website has not been altered since it was published on 27 November 2018;

(ii) public archives which show the Annual Report published on the City of Sydney website contained the correct travel figures on 27 March, 20 April, 19 June and 24 October 2019;

(iii) a Daily Telegraph report that "Mr Taylor's office had sent The Daily Telegraph the altered document"; and

(iv) the draft letter the Minister's Department submitted to the Minister's office contained no travel figures at all; and

(d) deliberately misleading the Parliament is both a contempt of the Parliament and a breach of the Ministerial Standards; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Minister for Emissions Reduction to make a full and frank statement to the House before it rises tonight explaining how he has not deliberately misled the Parliament.