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

I am pleased to be able to talk on this motion about arrangements for the arrival of President Obama in mid November. I do so remembering the strange parallels that exist in the current political climate with the climate in other times that American presidents have visited this country. Specifically, I remind members of the visit of George Bush Sr in Christmas 1991. He left the United States when Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister and arrived when Paul Keating was the Prime Minister. I wonder whether there will be similar parallels at this time—I wonder if President Obama will leave the United States to visit Julia Gillard as Prime Minister and arrive to find that Stephen Smith or Kevin Rudd is actually occupying that chair. It is an amusing and interesting analogy and a parallel that I think bears some witness to the divided and directionless government that we have in Australia today.

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