Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Federal/State Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I want to raise a similar matter to that raised by the Manager of Opposition Business. I will not repeat all of the points he made, which I agree with, but I am concerned about the implications and I ask you to consider this when you are in those further considerations. What we had today was a defence that this was a statement in public circulation in Queensland and it was eventually realised that it had to be withdrawn only if the Leader of the Opposition objected. The equivalent of that, Mr Speaker, is that if we in this parliament were to call the Prime Minister a ‘lying rodent’, which was in public circulation in Queensland, you would say that it only had to be withdrawn if the Prime Minister himself objected. That is a very dangerous road down which you have started us, Mr Speaker.

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