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

I am actually speaking to the motion that has been moved, unlike the two speakers on the other side, who spoke about the substance of the motion. This is about the functioning of this parliament and whether we should have a parliament in which it is agreed in terms of the timetable and the discussions that take place or whether we will move back to the old paradigm, the pre-hug paradigm, and we will come in at 9 am on Wednesdays and Thursdays and just think, ‘Oh well, it is your turn, shadow minister for immigration, to move the suspension this week.’

I think we should move beyond that. Because of the way we have framed the parliamentary sittings, I think there is no need for us to do that. We could do the same thing. We could come in here and have more of a chance of getting some success in moving a suspension of standing orders to debate the fact that the Leader of the Opposition refused to back in the shadow Treasurer on the doors this morning when asked about banks. We could come in and ask about that. We could have quite an interesting dialogue about the economic illiteracy of those who have adopted economic Hansonism over there and we could have a debate. We could have the Leader of the Opposition dissociating himself from the shadow Treasurer and then we could allow the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to defend her position—

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