Mr WAKELIN (2:23 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in his capacity as Leader of the House. Would the minister inform the House of the government's commitment to maintain high parliamentary standards and accountability? What obstacles exist that may prevent the parliament from achieving this objective?

Mr ABBOTT (Leader of the House) —I thank the member for Grey for his question. As every member of this House knows, sometimes some pretty hard things are said in the course of political debate. Some of those things are fair and some of those things are unfair. When anyone goes over the top, as sometimes happens, we should have the ordinary human decency to retract and apologise. As the House doubtless knows, the member for Werriwa has made a particularly vulgar statement about the Prime Minister. Even those who might agree with the member for Werriwa's general position ought to accept that the language of the gutter should have no place at all in Australia's public discourse. But the member for Werriwa went further than that.

Mr Albanese —Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order going to relevance. As I understand it, the minister was asked the question in his capacity as Leader of the House. The statement he is referring to was made outside the House and therefore I ask you to rule the question out of order.

The SPEAKER —I was listening closely to the minister's response. It is fair to say that the actions of people outside the House are not the business of the Speaker nor, I would have thought, of a minister. I am listening closely to the minister's response and invite him to continue, but I ask him to bear in mind that the actions of people outside the House are not something over which I see any of us having direct responsibility.

Mr ABBOTT —I have been asked about the government's commitment to maintaining the standards of public life. The member for Werriwa went further than that. He said to the Bulletin, published earlier today:

Mr Albanese —Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order which goes to my previous comment. He has now indicated by his own words that he is talking about statements in the Bulletin. I wonder how his position as Leader of the House relates to his position as a reviewer of Packer publications.

The SPEAKER —I invite the minister to continue and to focus on parliamentary standards.

Mr ABBOTT —Let me just say that Australians often disagree with each other, we argue with each other and sometimes we even dislike each other, but we do not hate each other. The elevation of hatred to a principle of political life is the kind of thing that happens in other countries and is responsible for the tragedies that we see daily, alas, in the Middle East. One of the great strengths of Australian public life is the ability of members of this parliament to engage in furious debate but still to respect each other's fundamental values and fundamental motives. I respectfully put it to the member for Werriwa that his comments do not reflect the true standards of Australian public life and they do not respect his own true standards. I respectfully put it to the member for Werriwa that he is better than that and that he would help himself and his leader if he apologised and retracted his statements to the Bulletin magazine.

Mr Ripoll —This is the guy who tried to punch a member of parliament!

The SPEAKER —If the member for Batman or the member for Oxley want to discover who is actually prepared to reinforce parliamentary standards, they will continue that exchange.