Bishop to oppose referral for Dutton

Julie Bishop confirms she will not support a Labor motion to refer the Home Affairs Minister to the High Court.

Julie Bishop holding a press conference at Parliament House, Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been offered a reprieve after Julie Bishop confirmed she would not support a Labor motion to refer him to the High Court.

Days after leaving open the possibility of backing Mr Dutton’s referral under section 44 of the Constitution, Ms Bishop told The Australian: “Based on current information, I would vote against such a motion.”

Labor has the support of four crossbenchers to test Mr Dutton’s eligibility but two Coalition MPs would need to abstain or cross the floor for the referral to succeed.

Mr Dutton and Scott Morrison said yesterday they did not believe Liberal MPs would cross the floor to side with Labor following weeks of scrutiny over an arrangement between the commonwealth and the minister’s family trust.

Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton yesterday. Picture: AAP

The Home Affairs Minister also talked up his relationship with Ms Bishop, the former Liberal deputy leader and country’s first female foreign minister.

“I haven’t spoken to Julie Bishop (since last week). I have a very good relationship with Julie. She’s one of our greatest foreign affairs ministers,” Mr Dutton said.

“These issues are being raised for political purposes, it was raised as I say by the Labor Party in October of last year and they didn’t raise it again so I am very confident in my position.”

Mr Dutton is the beneficiary of the RHT Family Trust, the trustee of which is RHT Investments, which owns the Camelia Avenue Childcare Centre in Queensland and which receives federal money in the form of the Child Care Subsidy. The childcare centre also received more than $15,000 under the government’s Inclusion Development Fund to provide a teacher for children with special needs — an arrangement that required a separate agreement.