Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I was appalled at the statements by the Leader of the Opposition. He made them very definitively. He said that the Prime Minister should not have appointed a person to this portfolio who had certain beliefs. He then proceeded to use the example of appointing a pacifist as defence minister. My mind immediately leapt to the fact that one of the ALP’s greatest ever leaders, their war leader—Curtin—was a very avowed pacifist. Most people in Australia, the vast bulk, would say that he made a very good war leader. The sectarian nature of the attack upon the minister appalled me. I asked for the Hansard because I did not believe that he said it, but, if there was any doubt in anyone’s mind, he went on to give an example. So Kerry Nettle’s T-shirt lives on in this place. The Hansard speaks for itself.

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