Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

That is as puerile and asinine a contribution as I have ever witnessed in this House. I say this to the Labor Party—I will give you some free advice—if you hand over your tactics, and therefore your political fortunes, to the member for Grayndler, you will stay in opposition for as far as you can see into the future. One of the measures of the effectiveness of an opposition is to judge who is running the show. The member for Grayndler is running tactics and has been for several months now. You can see it in question time. He is the one to the dispatch box, and now in this House we have seen the most banal matter of public importance that is possible to draft, let alone deliver, that we have seen for a long time. It was undergraduate humour, with the member for Grayndler reading his speech. He is such a great comedic wit and talent that he has to read his jokes. Let me tell you: we saw the punch line coming before he got the first phrase out. Talk about laboured, heavy-handed and obvious humour. What it boiled down to was personal attacks on the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. It seemed to me to be a good audition for the Glass House but, quite frankly, it fails the test of parliamentary debate and certainly lacks the substance and the alternative policies upon which people might choose the Labor Party ahead of the coalition government at a future election.

My advice to the opposition is to bring back the member for Lalor. I never thought I would say it: let the member for Lalor again assume a leadership position in parliamentary tactics. I noticed her quite obviously walking out as the member for Grayndler strode to the dispatch box with his swagger and confidence as he was about to abolish the government and watch the Prime Minister wilt under a barrage of criticism so cleverly worded! The member for Lalor absented herself, and quite rightly so. She knows that she has been pushed to one side. We are happy on this side to see the member for Grayndler assume a position of such influence over the Labor Party. He lacks the political judgement and wit to bring the government to its knees as they would want us.

There was a very instructive comment in the contribution of the member for Grayndler. It was arguably the only one! He said, ‘Industrial relations will see us win the next election.’ That strikes me as being somewhat complacent. We on this side do not believe we have won the next election. We do not believe there is a silver bullet that we can lazily rely upon to win office. Talk about underestimating the Australian electorate: to think that one and only one issue will give you office is to completely misread the sophistication and the rightful expectations, even demands, of the modern Australian voter. It is a classic Labor mistake.

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