Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In condemning your ruling, in supporting the dissent, the member for Warringah said: ‘I was Leader of the House. I never did anything like this in my term as Leader of the House.’ I present the evidence to support your ruling, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is a report of the Procedure Committee, which was chaired by Margaret May, entitled: Motion to suspend standing orders and condemn a member: report on events of 10 October 2006. What did it report on? It reported on a motion moved by the honourable member for Warringah when he was Leader of the House. What did the Procedure Committee find? Did the Procedure Committee say that the member for Warringah was correct and that he had followed the proper course? Of course it did not. It actually recommended unanimously that standing order 47 be changed and that, in fact, we have two motions, just as the Leader of the House has moved. The member for Warringah, in speaking to this motion, is absolutely condemned by his own words, his own lack of memory and his own actions when he was Leader of the House.

Both motions draw attention to the fact that this parliament is sitting at a time of global crisis. Is this disputed by the opposition? Are they saying that there is no global crisis? Are the opposition offering bipartisan support? No, they are not offering bipartisan support. This is what is objected to by the Leader of the House and by members of the government on this side of the House. They are not only not offering bipartisan support but playing petty politics at a time of crisis for ordinary people. They are attacking, in the most shameful way, the Governor of the Reserve Bank. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition is himself attacking—

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