Prime Minister

The majority voted against a motion to suspend the usual rules to allow a vote to happen. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to suspend standing orders. It was introduced by Ballarat MP Catherine King (Labor).

Motion text

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Ballarat from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes the Prime Minister:

(a) has taken his rorts to the streets, allocating more than 83 percent of the $3 billion Urban Congestion Fund to Liberal seats and marginal seats targeted by the Liberal Party;

(b) allocated funding to every Liberal seat that was marginal or under threat, as well as several marginal regional electorates held or targeted by the Liberal Party;

(c) did not allocate a cent to address congestion in 38 urban and regional city seats held by non-Government Members;

(d) incorrectly claimed the projects were election commitments, when the Urban Congestion Fund was established in the 2018 Budget;

(e) did not release any guidelines, did not formally call for expressions of interest, did not spend a cent from the Urban Congestion Fund in 2018-19, but did spend $17 million of government resources on pre-election advertisements telling us how good it was; and

(f) repeatedly sought to downplay and dismiss the serious allegation that his government continually spends taxpayer dollars for private political gain; and

(2) therefore calls on the Prime Minister to:

(a) correct his incorrect statement that Urban Congestion Fund projects are election commitments; and

(b) explain why his Government used taxpayer money as though it was its own personal marketing fund.