Health minister also on back foot over incident in which he swore at mayor of Katherine

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Greg Hunt has admitted his former departmental head made a complaint about him after a verbal confrontation, adding to an incident where the health minister told the mayor of Katherine she needed to “fucking get over it”.



Hunt began Thursday apologising for his expletive-ridden confrontation with the mayor of Katherine, Fay Miller, last December, after it was revealed by News Corp, but then faced sustained pressure in question time about other incidents in which he may have used inappropriate language with stakeholders, bureaucrats or staff.

Malcolm Turnbull was asked whether he was aware of other incidents, and avoided answering in the specific, noting only that Hunt was “doing an outstanding job”.

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When Labor pursued the line of questioning, the health minister admitted he had a “strong discussion” with the former secretary of his department that had triggered a complaint to the secretary of the prime minister’s department.

But Hunt defended the confrontation, telling parliament the stoush was over “a matter of life and death” – the progress of cervical cancer screenings.

“I think in that situation, while it was a strong discussion, it resulted in the right outcome, the program was able to be continued and I have utmost respect for the public servant involved,” the minister said.

When Martin Bowles resigned as secretary of the health department in late 2017, it was reported there were tensions between the senior bureaucrat and his boss.

Hunt’s travails added to a choppy week for the Turnbull government. Earlier on Thursday, the government withdrew its own legislation toughening the regulations governing the live sheep trade because Liberal Sussan Ley told colleagues she would vote for a Labor amendment giving effect to her private member’s bill.

The government was due to bring forward its legislation applying tougher regulations to the scandal-prone industry but yanked the bill on Thursday morning after Ley signalled to government colleagues she would cross the floor.

The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce – under pressure over accepting a $150,000 fee for a tell-all interview with the Seven Network with his partner, Vikki Campion – took a period of medical leave but, amid speculation about his political future, promptly contradicted the party whip about when he planned to return to Canberra.

The interview will air on Sunday night and Joyce says he will be back in the parliament for the last two sitting weeks before the winter break.

The jobs minister, Michaelia Cash, was also subpoenaed to give evidence in a court case brought by the Australian Workers’ Union challenging the legality of the police raid of its headquarters.

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Unless the subpoena is set aside by 20 June – and she is seeking to have it set aside – Cash will have to produce documents about the raid, including any communications with her staff, and will be required to appear at a federal court hearing in August.

There was another debate in the Coalition party room over the national energy guarantee, with the former prime minister Tony Abbott demanding that the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, bring the policy back to the Coalition party room before a meeting of state energy ministers in August – an overture Frydenberg rebuffed.

Abbott also waded into ongoing preselection dramas in the Liberal party in New South Wales, warning there would be no “harmony” if his factional ally, the conservative backbencher Craig Kelly, was rolled by a moderate, Kent Johns.

Party sources say Johns has the numbers to prevail in a challenge against Kelly.

There were a couple of bright spots for the government.

The One Nation senator Brian Burston defied his party leader, Pauline Hanson, and said he would vote for the government’s legislation giving a tax cut to Australia’s largest companies.

Burston’s vote is helpful for the government but it still remains four short, and the parliamentary outlook for the company tax cut proposal looks grim.

The government also gained a number in the Senate. Steve Martin, the independent who replaced Jacqui Lambie in the Senate after she resigned in the dual citizenship fiasco, joined the National party.

Martin joining the Coalition boosts the government’s Senate numbers to 31.