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

I withdraw that statement, Mr Speaker. Standing orders should be suspended and this motion given precedence because the Prime Minister is looking increasingly like Bernie Lomax from Weekend at Bernie's. The faceless men know she is politically dead, but they manipulate her and keep her from behind the scenes because it suits their ends to do so and for no other reason. These are the faceless men: Senator Don Farrell, Senator Feeney, Senator Arbib and Senator Conroy, the members for Port Adelaide and Maribyrnong and Oxley. Most of them are utterly unheard of, yet they wield more power than the Prime Minister and the cabinet when they decide who should be the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the circumstances in which they should be appointed. The faceless men of the Labor caucus need power and influence. They crave it—it is like a drug to the faceless men of the Labor Party. Without it, they cannot keep their lieutenants in line. Without it, they cannot give crumbs to the elves and sprites who rely on their power and influence for their own self-esteem and power and influence. The reason standing orders must be suspended and this motion given precedence is that it is time for the Prime Minister to own up to the real circumstances that surrounded the offer that was made to Bob Carr to be the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia over every single member of the Labor caucus. They are not just faceless men in the Labor Party but so useless that not one of them could take the role of foreign minister. They are so useless that not one of them could be Speaker of the House of Representatives. They are so useless that Bob Carr was preferred over every member of the Labor caucus. How does it make you feel? How does it make you feel that the Prime Minister would go to an outsider to take one of the most important roles in the Commonwealth rather than take any of her apparently valueless colleagues?

There is no better example of what has happened in this government and the Labor Party in the last several years than in three incidents that continue to haunt this government. The first is the midnight coup by the faceless men that removed the member for Griffith in 2010. The second, which we are still dealing with today, is the protection racket that surrounds the member for Dobell. The faceless man cannot allow the member for Dobell to leave the parliament because as soon as Labor loses office in Canberra the faceless men will lose their power around the country. Sussex Street came to Canberra when the New South Wales Labor government fell and they decided to move their power base down to Canberra. The faceless men are running this government. The Sussex Street death squads operated on the night of 23 June 2010. They operate to protect the member for Dobell in the protection racket that emanates out of this government and the Prime Minister's office.

And we have seen this week the third example, where the faceless men were not prepared to have Bob Carr as foreign minister. The faceless men said, 'No, we want that job for ourselves.' So in 24 hours this newly assertive Prime Minister asked for one thing. She wanted to get to choose her executive. She wanted to get to choose her foreign minister. She apparently wanted to get somebody respectable into the role of a cabinet minister in this government. But, no, the faceless men would not let her. They said, 'That job is for one of our favourite people. That job is for the current Minister for Defence.' That is why standing orders must be suspended—because it is time for the Prime Minister to own up to the Australian people about just who is running this government. Is it the Prime Minister or is she Bernie Lomax? Are Don Farrell, Senator Feeney and all the others the real power behind the throne? (Time expired)

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