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

For this Leader of the Opposition, his whole notion of leadership is the political equivalent of going the biff. That is his way of acting. He has done for political discourse in this country what the vuvuzela did for World Cup soccer in South Africa.

He is saying that his very first commitment, if he is elected to office, is to give a tax break to 30 of the wealthiest companies in this country—people who are having superprofits. These people are not only making these profits but saying they are prepared to pay the tax. They should pay the tax. We on this side of the chamber say yes to the minerals resource rent tax. The Australian public say yes to the minerals rent tax. The big miners say yes to the MRRT. The only people in Australia who say no are those opposite.

Mr John Cobb interjecting—

And last night they said it 32 times.

But there is something that is very interesting. As everyone would know, there was no gagging of the debate last night. Everyone had an opportunity to make a contribution, but there is one person who did not make a contribution to the debate on the minerals resource rent tax—and that is the Leader of the Opposition.

He could not get to his feet: not yesterday, not the day before, not when we introduced the legislation. Not one word during the debate did he have to make, yet he says this is the most important issue facing Australia. He could not be bothered getting to his feet. He slept through the economic stimulus plan vote and last night had to have a person either side of him to nudge him and wake him up during the divisions. You had the Chief Opposition Whip on one side and the Manager of Opposition Business on the other nudging him every 10 minutes to get him to wake up, having slept through the economic stimulus plan.

But of course he has got form because he could not be bothered speaking on the minerals resource rent tax legislation. When the carbon price came to a vote in the Senate—remember the other big piece of legislation—he was on a plane—

Mr Tony Smith interjecting—

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