Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. It is important that the House suspend standing orders because this House and the Australian public deserve an honest explanation from this Prime Minister—a Prime Minister who has a passing acquaintance with the truth; a Prime Minister who in recent days has unleashed her dogs of war to incite an unprecedented wave of vitriol and public vilification against a former leader of the Labor Party and a former Labor Prime Minister. It is important that standing orders are suspended so that the Prime Minister can explain why she sent out her lieutenants to describe a former Prime Minister of this nation and a former foreign minister of this nation as 'a psychopath with a huge ego', as 'deeply flawed' and having 'great weaknesses', as someone 'disloyal to the labour movement', as a person 'whose behaviour became increasingly erratic' and as someone who 'showed contempt for cabinet, contempt for the parliament and contempt for the Australian public'.

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