Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

We have just heard the confession but without the contrition. The Leader of the House is not just a member of the frontbench; he has a particular role in this House in terms of promoting parliamentary standards. Indeed, the Leader of the House said on 19 March 2002:

I am very proud to serve in this government—a government which has upheld the highest parliamentary standards, a government which supports the great institutions of this country.

And on a number of other occasions the manager of government business, the Leader of the House, has stood in this place and in the media and spoken about the need for us to be kinder and gentler to each other and has spoken to us about the need to lift up the parliamentary standards in this place. But this motion goes beyond the interests of the Leader of the House or the interests of any of us. It goes to the dignity of this parliament itself as an institution. The fact is that page 33 of the Hansard of Thursday, 25 May 2006 records in perpetuity that this House carried a motion, ‘That the snivelling grub over there be not further heard.’

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