Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

He was Deputy Prime Minister in a government which went to the Australian people in 1993 saying that tax cuts were not just a policy, they were l-a-w law, and then ripped them up shortly after being re-elected.

By all means, if this government makes mistakes, if this government gets it wrong, hold us to account, but do not engage in the high-pitched hyperbole and in the completely over-the-top bluster that we have seen today from the Leader of the Opposition. If I could dwell briefly on some of the specific points that he made, he claimed that there has been some kind of abuse of democracy going on in the Senate. For the benefit of members opposite, let me simply remind them that all that has happened is that a system that was good enough for Labor between 1983 and 1994 has been restored—that is all. What is so outrageous about having government members chair Senate committees? Between 1983 and 1994, government members chaired Senate committees and that government did not even have a majority in the Senate. There is no reason whatsoever that this democratically elected government, this government with a democratically elected majority in the Senate, should not chair those committees.

It was alleged that there was some kind of vicious deception going on in workplace relations prior to the last election. I think that this government ought to be judged on what it does. So far, we have delivered 1.8 million new jobs. There has been a 17 per cent real increase in basic award earnings under this government. Strikes are at the lowest level since records were first kept. The government is convinced that the further industrial relations changes that we have made will build on that record. We could be wrong. It may be that doom and disaster will follow these changes, as it was predicted to follow the previous changes that we made. If doom and disaster follows, we will be judged by the Australian people and they will be entitled to judge us harshly. But let us judge this government by results and we are perfectly prepared to be judged by those results.

Another of the accusations hurled at us by the Leader of the Opposition was the ludicrous suggestion that we are in some way stripping young people of their right to vote. We are doing our best to tighten up the conditions under which people go on the electoral roll. It has been said in this House before but let me say again that, under the rules as they did pertain, it was harder to take out a video than it was to go on the electoral roll. There is nothing antidemocratic about trying to ensure that you cannot rort the electoral roll.

It is an old furphy—oppositions raise it all the time—that this government, or any government for that matter, is rorting the system every time it advertises a government service. I suppose, if I am going to be absolutely honest, when we were in opposition we may even have made similar accusations about the government, but let us be fair dinkum about this: governments do advertise; governments have to advertise. The state Labor governments between them massively outspend the advertising budget of this government. There are some things which are illegitimate—there is no doubt about that—in the kinds of ads that governments might be tempted to run, but let all of the advertising of this government be judged on the particular merits of the campaign. The fact that it happens is really a simple function of government.

Finally, there is this hysterical campaign that the Leader of the Opposition has been embarked on for the large part of this year about the AWB. I would be the first to admit that, on the face of the evidence that has been presented to the Cole Commission of Inquiry, things that should never have been done were done and the whole point of the Cole Commission of Inquiry is to get to the bottom of these matters. To be honest, I think that what we have seen consistently from the Leader of the Opposition over the last six months is virtually in contempt of the Cole Commission of Inquiry. Nothing will satisfy the Leader of the Opposition but a judgment from Commissioner Cole that every single government frontbencher who has ever had any dealing with the AWB should be, if not hung, drawn and quartered, certainly expelled from this parliament for dishonesty. Let us not have the hyperbole from members opposite. Let us have the dispassionate judgment of Commissioner Cole, and certainly the Australian public will decide this matter based on his judgment.

One of the things I have found a little interesting in the formal wording of this MPI is the government’s alleged ‘arrogant approach’ to the parliament. Let us consider just who is and who is not trying to uphold the best standards of this parliament. Disrupting the House is not a sign of a disciplined opposition; disrupting the House is a sign of a desperate opposition. What we have seen from members opposite consistently in the course of this year but particularly over the last few weeks is consistent, deliberate, planned and premeditated conduct to disrupt this House. Let me give you just a few examples, Mr Speaker. There were 36 opposition suspension motions in the entire year of 2005. There were just seven opposition suspension motions in the last six months of 1995 and there have been no fewer than 16 opposition suspension motions in the first six months of this year. In 1995 the then opposition leader, John Howard, took 18 points of order in his last six months as opposition leader. So far, since January, the Leader of the Opposition has taken at least 55 points of order.

There have been all sorts of complaints from members opposite about bad language, abusive language, in this chamber from the government. Let me for the record remind members opposite of the language of the Leader of the Opposition that has been recorded in Hansard. He referred to a government minister as ‘a sleazy, dummy-spitting little git’. He referred to a minister—

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