Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hume, if he had the courage of his convictions, would actually be moving a motion about Telstra, but we all know that he has not got the courage of his convictions. The member for Hume is a windbag when he is back in his electorate and in the media, but he never does anything very courageous in here—not once, not ever. I have never seen him cross the floor and I don’t think I ever will.

Here we have government members jeering at simple democratic norms in this House. The only thing you can conclude—and it is a tragic thing to have to conclude—is that they do not care about these democratic norms. They actually do not care about the functioning of this House. They actually do not care about their status as members of the House of Representatives, because they do not think about themselves in those terms. They are not parliamentarians; they are members of the Howard government, and when they are required to choose between those two roles—oh, here we are, bully boy with the gag. Here we go!

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