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

That is what Hansard records in black and white. It also records the fact that, on a number of occasions, the Leader of the House was asked to withdraw and, to be perfectly accurate, the Leader of the House did withdraw. He withdrew on page 39—six pages of Hansard later, an hour later, after totally unnecessary divisions and conflict in this House. Why should this suspension be carried? It should be carried because the dignity of this House will be damaged if it is not. If that motion remains in the book then standing orders 89, 90 and 91(b), which were breached, will be in question. This motion deliberately does not condemn the Leader of the House and it takes no offence against any individual; it is aimed at the collective dignity of this House. What should have occurred last Thursday is that the Leader of the House should have stood up immediately and said, ‘You’re right.’ He should have used the words, ‘I was wrong.’ That did not occur last Thursday, it did not occur yesterday and it did not occur this morning. It should happen right now. But we have not heard that today. AAP story No. 3015, reporting on a press conference, says:

Mr Abbott today conceded Mr Lindsay could have handled last Thursday’s debate better.

The poor bloke was doing his best—

“Strictly speaking, the chair probably should have required me to rephrase the motion,” Mr Abbot told AAP.

Why doesn’t the Leader of the House know that it was within his power to do that? The Leader of the House should accept this suspension—should vote for this motion—and then give seven days notice, in accordance with standing order 220, that the motion be rescinded. Unless that occurs, the motion stays. My colleague the member for Lalor took the action she took this morning to draw attention to that. What we have seen is the difference in standards between the member for Lalor, who has standards, and the Leader of the House, who simply does not. He will not accept responsibility for his actions and he always goes a yard too far. He should vote for this suspension and get rid of this stain on the parliament.

Question put:

That the motion (Mr Beazley’s) be agreed to.

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