Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I did not interrupt you, Member for Sturt—a man who says he cares about democracy and clearly does not. The guidelines are about who speaks at a ceremony—who officiates on behalf of the Australian government—not who can attend.

The member for Sturt has raised the question of who can attend ceremonies at schools. I want the member for Sturt and every Liberal member in this House to understand this. Schools will be able to invite Liberal Party members to Investing in Our Schools launches and they will be able to invite Liberal Party members to Building the Education Revolution launches. Do you know what? I hope they do. I hope they invite every Liberal member of parliament. When a school is opening a new building that this government has funded, I hope every parent and every teacher stands in a queue and asks the Liberal Party member there why they oppose them having that facility. That is what I hope happens. I hope you are all continually there, day after day, being asked why you voted against the schools in your electorates getting those benefits.

I conclude by saying this: under the Howard government, we used to have the phenomenon of members being lions in their electorates but lambs when they came to Canberra. They would stalk around their electorate saying, ‘I don’t believe in selling Telstra.’ That was always a classic. Then they would come here to the Liberal party room and say: ‘Eek, eek, eek! John Howard wants me to sell Telstra.’ But now, of course, we are seeing the reverse: they are lions here in the parliament. They shout abuse about Building the Education Revolution. They vote against it. Their most senior spokespeople describe it as ‘ridiculous’, ‘poor quality spending’ and so on. They are lions here, but in their electorates they are lambs trying to work out how they can get themselves in the photo when a building is opened. Political decisions have political consequences, and you made one by voting against the Building the Education Revolution program. I hope every member of the Liberal Party is at every opening explaining that.

See this speech in context