QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science) (15:01): Thank you to Senator O'Neill. You are right, Senator O'Neill—Tomago Aluminium, the Boyne smelter in Central Queensland, Mount Isa copper, Phosphate Hill's fertiliser manufacturing facility, Port Pirie's lead facility, the Hobart zinc facility, Whyalla steel— Senator Colbeck: Fail.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Colbeck, stop the running interjections. Senator AYRES: What you need to do, if you're serious about dealing with Australia's industrial capability, is start approaching these issues through the prism of— Senator Colbeck interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Minister Ayres, please resume your seat. Senator Colbeck, I specifically asked you to stop the running interjections, and you simply ignored me, once again being disrespectful to me.

If you can't listen in silence, leave the chamber. Senator AYRES: Now, these senior representatives of the parties over here, the Liberals and the Nationals and One Nation, who have spent the week telling lies about what is driven— The PRESIDENT: Senator Ayres, you need to withdraw that. Senator AYRES: I withdraw—deliberate falsehoods constructed for political purposes to try and drive an approach that would cause the closure of each of these facilities.

Now, President, Senator Canavan went out earlier this week—after hundreds of Australian steelworkers had spent month after month after month in a gutsy, heroic effort to maintain a coal-fired blast furnace that had been driven into the ground by its previous owner—and said it was about energy costs. Senator Canavan went out and said it was about the safeguard mechanism.

That is a deliberate falsehood. It is utterly disrespectful to those proud outback Australians, who actually get up out of bed and go to work, well before Senator Canavan ever breaks a sweat, and actually make a contribution themselves. If you make that claim, either you're wilfully wrong or you're deliberately misrepresenting the position for the narrowest, shallowest partisan purposes, using blue-collar workers as a prop for your sordid political campaign.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Ayres, when I asked you to withdraw, you did, and I thank you for that. But you immediately went on to use the word 'deliberate' in front of 'falsehoods', which is an imputation. You did it twice.

I would ask you to withdraw it, please. Senator AYRES: I withdraw. The PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Senator O'Neill, first supplementary?