This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Turnbull government has blasted Labor for rejecting its request to “pair” votes in the new parliament, saying Labor is either ignorant or taking a “malicious” approach to its role in opposition.



Labor accused the Coalition of overreacting. It said Malcolm Turnbull had claimed he had a working majority, so no arrangement should be necessary.

Under a pairing arrangement, a Labor MP would agree to abstain from voting in parliament if a Coalition member was unable to vote, due to political commitments or illness.



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The Turnbull government has a bare one-seat majority in the new parliament – 76 of 150 seats – so it would like a pairing arrangement to ensure stability.

But the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, has rejected the government’s request to pair votes because he said Turnbull had already claimed he has a working majority.

“Malcolm Turnbull has told his own party room, and told the Australian public, that he believes his government has a working majority in his own right,” he told ABC radio.

“He said they’ve got a working majority, he said this is not a problem, so we’ll hold him to his word. If government is not as stable as the prime minister has claimed, then he needs to fess up to the Australian people, not try to do some side deal with us.”

Christopher Pyne, the leader of the house, has accused Labor of double standards, saying the move was unprecedented because Labor was granted pairing for sick MPs in the Gillard minority government.

“Labor is either acting out of a breathtaking ignorance, or a malicious and mendacious approach to the parliament,” he told ABC radio.

“It exposes their immaturity and I would expect Bill Shorten to intervene to ensure that the kind of workplace relationships that he expects to occur in the rest of the workforce occurs in the national parliament where, if a person is sick, or their child is sick, they are relieved from work for that period of time.”

But he did not mention that, in 2011 when the Coalition was in opposition, he himself had threatened not to grant a pair for then Labor backbencher Craig Thomson so Thomson could attend the birth of his child during the debate on carbon pricing legislation.

Pyne said at the time that the carbon pricing vote would be the most important vote in the Parliament, and the Labor government should schedule the vote when it knew all its members could be present.

“No, there will be no pairs granted during the carbon tax vote,” Pyne said.

“It’s entirely within the gift of the government when the carbon tax bills are brought on for a vote and therefore they have had weeks of notice that we will be not giving pairs at the vote. If they are foolish enough to schedule the vote at a time when Mr Thomson can’t be there, then that will be on their heads.”

The pair was eventually granted by Tony Abbott.

On Tuesday, Pyne also took to Twitter to vent his frustration.

“In the 43rd Parliament the Coalition ALWAYS paired ill MPs or MPs facing family emergencies,” he tweeted. “I trust the media will slam @billshortenmp for his refusal to grant pairs to an MP who may be in hospital or facing a family crisis.”

with Australian Associated Press