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

The opposition are embarrassed by this because what they are doing in their electorates is different from what they are doing in here. It is important that the people who are listening to this know exactly what they are doing in their electorates. Here is a photo of the member for Grey at the announcement of the funding for the Port Pirie library and internet centre on 1 May. The member for Mayo is pushing his way into the photograph. He did not want to miss out on being in the local paper. He was happy to welcome the $2.3 million for the new swimming pool in Strathalbyn. He was very happy to see that. Here is a photo of the member for Gilmore giving the thumbs up to the program with Senator Mark Arbib. They will not put their hands up in here, but they put their thumbs up in their electorates and pretend that they support these programs. The Dunn and Lewis youth complex in Ulladulla is a good project. The opposition were happy to vote against it in the parliament, but they go back to their electorates and pretend that they are for it. They stand up here in question time and say, ‘What about the debt and all of this?’ You cannot say that you are against the spending here but then go back to your electorate and campaign against it. It is just not fair dinkum.

From time to time we see people who are not fair dinkum but are prepared to parade themselves before the media. Indeed, last week Claire Werbeloff shot to international fame after going to extraordinary lengths to get herself in front of the camera to give a grab and to get that few minutes of fame. But, unfortunately, when you look for the substance it just is not there. That is just like the Leader of the Opposition, who voted against the Community Infrastructure Program. One of the first projects launched was a terrific project to fix up the Waverley pavilion. I wrote to the Leader of the Opposition and suggested that he might like to come along. You would think that, out a sense of doing the right thing, he would be too embarrassed to come along.

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