Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I hear you, Mr Speaker. The reason it is so important that standing orders be suspended and that this amendment be carried to form part of the suspension of standing orders is the country is unable to get on with the necessary business of protecting our borders, of resolving the carbon tax disagreements that the House has, of ensuring that people's cost of living is not going through the roof, which it is at the moment, and of trying to keep down interest rates and addressing inflation. All of these issues are on hold while the government is paralysed by the issues surrounding the member for Dobell. My point was that, if I were a Labor member of parliament, I would want him to come into the House because, as one senior caucus member said in the Australian Financial Review today:

This is the last thing Julia needed … It gives Abbott another way to highlight the integrity issue which is the albatross around Julia's neck …

See this speech in context