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

There is some irony in the Deputy Leader of the Opposition contributing to this debate given the content of her speech. She gave a speech about loyalty. She knows; she has been loyal to all three leaders she has been deputy to—Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott, and I am sure there will be more to come. We also heard about loyalty from the Leader of the Opposition. Ask Peter Reith about loyalty from the Leader of the Opposition, who put in him in a ballot, asked him to run and then ratted on him in the ballot—on TV. And he has the hide to come in here and run lectures about loyalty.

This suspension of standing orders is the 39th attempted suspension of standing orders from those opposite. That in itself tells you why we should not suspend standing orders. The suspension of standing orders or a censure resolution is a mechanism available under parliamentary procedures for serious issues on serious occasions, not to be used every single day, as those opposite do, because, quite frankly, they cannot get their act together to get a decent question time pack out of their tactics committee. We know that that is the case because their tactics committee is bigger than their frontbench, and we know that they have 32 on their frontbench because two of them are currently scrambling around hoping they will make the top 30, given the legislation put forward to provide salaries for 30 shadow ministers not the 32 under the Howard government legislation. What we have seen here today is a bid by the member for Menzies to make the top 30. What we have seen from the member for Mackellar is the raising of points of order to see if she can make the top 30. We know that those opposite have got an ambitious backbench. We know that the member for Higgins and the member for Mayo and all of the others are scrambling to get into that top 30—they are hanging on. It is extraordinary that we have had from those opposite a suggestion to suspend standing orders on matters that are erroneous.

What we see from those opposite, day after day in debates on legislation, is an attempt to scare workers and their families. We know what the CEO of Alcoa has said about Point Henry and about the future of that plant. But there is no factory and there is no work site—particularly in Queanbeyan, for the member for Eden-Monaro—that the Leader of the Opposition is not prepared to go to and run a scare campaign.

This parliament should be about serious issues. We had it this morning with the private health insurance legislation, this afternoon we will be debating the ABCC legislation and we have question time available to people. The most serious thing that has happened today was about righting a historic wrong: the Closing the Gap statement by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Both of them are sincerely committed to making a difference when it comes to Indigenous Australians, as is the parliament as a whole. But what we saw today after the Closing the Gap statement, when the member for Franklin was on her feet answering a question about Indigenous employment, was an ongoing chant from a senior member of the opposition of 'Boring!'

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