Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I am speaking against the suspension of standing orders—about why standing orders should not be suspended and the further business of the House deferred. That should not happen, because this is just a stunt. This is a stunt from an opposition that has clearly lost its way. You have the Leader of the Opposition sitting there, the bloke behind him is the person who wants to be the Leader of the Opposition, and all we are seeing is that being played out in front of the nation. That is all this is about.

There was no basis for this. I sat in tactics committees for a few years, and let me tell you that one thing that we did not do in opposition during those years was move a suspension without any lead-up, without any momentum, on the floor of the House of Representatives. You had nothing today—nothing. You got slaughtered by the Treasurer, by the Minister for Ageing, by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, by the Deputy Prime Minister and by the Prime Minister. Question after question that you asked got batted straight over the boundary for six. The most absurd question was from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the small business question—we are still trying to work out what that was about.

Seriously, you ran out of questions at about five or six and then you moved a suspension of standing orders on that basis. But I am not surprised, because this is an opposition that has clearly lost its way. Not only does it not have any ideas about what it stands for, not only does it have no plans for the future; it actually does not even know what its name will be in 12 months time. The fact is that normally when people stand for parliament they stand on the basis of what their party stands for—what they are about. We on this side of the House are elected proudly as Labor Party members—a tradition 117 years long, a tradition of building the nation, a tradition of building equity and a fair go through the Australian system. But I note that Senator Barnaby Joyce today in the Courier-Mail has come up with a different process for the naming and recognition of political parties.

See this speech in context