Dr EMERSON (9:01 AM) —I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Minister for Small Business and Tourism from apologising to the House for repeatedly and deliberately misleading the House by:

(1) claiming yesterday that the Member for Rankin had said in a press release that “In those cases where the small business is, in fact, insolvent, the redundancy obligations would be met through the Government's GEERS arrangements”, while deliberately failing to complete the sentence which continued “and Labor's commitment to guarantee 100 per cent of employee entitlements”;

(2) falsely claiming on 27 May 2004 in relation to a COSBOA dinner that: “everyone who was at the dinner who was paying attention to his words knows that the Member for Rankin uttered the words that he did not employ someone because of the unfair dismissal laws”;

(3) falsely claiming on 30 March 2004 that: “Under the Labor Party's industrial relations policy, every employer has to give to an employee coming back from maternity leave an entitlement to part-time work rather than full-time work”;

(4) falsely claiming on 30 March 2004 that Labor has a policy to: “push casual employees into permanent part-time employment”;

(5) falsely claiming on 23 March 2004 that Labor will introduce a national portable long service leave scheme; and

(6) ignoring personal explanations and repeating these false claims in the House.

This man is a serial liar. He is an embarrassment to the Australian parliament.