Mr SOMLYAY (2:53 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing, representing the Special Minister of State. Does the minister have any new information on the real cost of quality office space in the suburb of Barton? Does a particular Commonwealth lease entered into by an organisation registered under the Electoral Act represent good value to the Australian taxpayer? Is it a fact that no other landlords in Barton have tenants paying $871 per square metre with a nine per cent ratchet clause?

Honourable members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The House will come to order.

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Health and Ageing) —I can say yes, no and yes to the member for Fairfax. I am very pleased to have this question from him, because he understands how hard it is for most members of parliament to raise money for their election campaigns. But the Leader of the Opposition has a truly magical ability to raise $6,721 every single day for his re-election campaign before he has scoffed a single scone or drawn a single raffle at one of those functions that the rest of us have to go to. The Leader of the Opposition has raised nearly $35,000 for Labor's election campaign since question time in this House last Thursday. In less than a week, he has raised that much money, thanks to the Centenary House rent rort.

We have just seen, in the Sydney City Council election, a complete wipe-out of the Australian Labor Party because of a transparent head office rort to harvest developer donations. In 60 per cent Labor areas, there was 80 per cent opposition to the ALP because voters wanted to protest against blatant political greed. And, just like the Sydney City Council scam, the Centenary House rent rort is a naked exercise in political greed. It is a blatant get-rich-quick scheme for a political party.

Thanks to the rent rort, taxpayers are paying the Australian Labor Party $871 a metre for nondescript office space in Barton. If the Australian National Audit Office were allowed to migrate across the road to the National Press Club, they would be paying just $300 a square metre and, what is more, they would probably be getting a month's free rent for every year. But the Labor Party will not let them. The Labor Party will not let the Audit Office and Australian taxpayers take advantage of the cheap rents that are available in Barton.

Mr Speaker, just to give you some idea of the scale of the rip-off, I have been talking to experts about rental prices, and I am told that the most expensive office space in the United States is in the Manhattan Tower in mid-town New York. I looked up some information about the Manhattan Tower on the Internet. It offers amazing views to the east, north and south of New York. It offers fully trained and certified security personnel, it is right next door to the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and—as a further inducement to tenants—Manhattan Tower offers discount tickets to all of its tenants for plays, comedy shows and sporting events. At Centenary House they would not even give you a ticket to question time without a further donation to the Labor Party, yet you get all this at Manhattan Tower for just $773. You can rent space on the 23rd floor of Manhattan Tower for $773, which is well under the $871 which the Labor Party is getting from the poor, fleeced Australian taxpayer. Barton costs more than Manhattan, when the Labor Party is the beneficiary.

Centenary House is an obscene monument to political greed. It is the Mount Rushmore of rip-offs, and it has the Leader of the Opposition's face engraved on the facade. He says he supports higher ethical standards. That is what he says, but he practises the worst form of Tammany-Hall politics. If he were at all serious about standards, he would end the rent rort rip-off now.

Mr Howard —Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.