Federal Parliament has spent more than an hour, in a crucial post-budget sitting week, to debate a government motion demanding a senior Labor member apologise to the Speaker for criticising her use of an official dining room for a party fundraising function.
It is the second day in a row the Parliament has been sidetracked by brawling between the two major parties over the budget-night Liberal Party dinner held in Bronwyn Bishop's suite at Parliament House.
Yesterday, Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke accused Mrs Bishop of "trashing" the independence of the Speaker's position.
He has since written to Parliament's powerful privileges committee asking it to investigate the matter.
Mrs Bishop's office has said no taxpayer funds were used to hold the function.
This afternoon, the Leader of the House, Christopher Pyne, moved a motion that Parliament demand Mr Burke apologise for a "grotesque reflection" on the Speaker.
"When an egregious falsehood has been made against the Speaker, when a gross calumny has been visited on the Speaker and has been proven to be a gross calumny, the right course of action is to come into the House and immediately apologise," he told Parliament.
Mr Pyne accused Mr Burke of bullying the Speaker from the day she was appointed, when the Opposition strategist referred to Mrs Bishop as the character Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter novels.
"If he doesn't apologise to you then he should resign, Madam Speaker, and if he doesn't resign, the Leader of the Opposition should show the strength of character and leadership that is required in the leader of a great political party and sack him," Mr Pyne said.
He seized on Mr Burke's claim yesterday that the Speaker's actions in hosting the dinner set a precedent, producing an article from 2000 that stated former Labor speaker Leo Macleay had also held ALP fundraisers in the Speaker's suite.
Mr Burke said "if a fact was incorrect, then I'm sorry that that occurred", but described the motion as an attack on freedom of speech.
"Sure there are some parliaments in the world where this happens. North Korea probably does stuff like this," he said.
"What's happened to Australian democracy if the Parliament is such that elected members of Parliament get told what to say by Christopher Pyne?"
Mr Burke said he would not apologise.
"What no observer of this chamber should apologise for is the claim that this Speaker is biased," he said.
The motion passed on the Government's majority in the House, but Mrs Bishop took no action against Mr Burke when he refused to formally say sorry for his criticism of her.
The Speaker brought the debate to an end by saying she was "a warrior for the people of Australia, for the Parliament and for this House".
"I would hope that this salutary motion will bring about more decorum in this place, where we will indeed work for the benefit of the people of Australia and put aside some of the things that have transpired in recent times so the people of Australia can indeed feel more proud of us," she said.
With that, Parliament moved on to the rest of Government business, namely the budget bills.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/23892135/tony-burke-defiant-after-government-passes-motion-calling-on-him-to-apologise-to-speaker-bronwyn-bishop/
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