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

He said, 'One man's lie is another man's judgment call.' That is what the Leader of the Opposition said. We know that he went on the 7.30 Report and said, 'Don't believe anything I say unless it's in writing'. If it is not in writing it does not matter. We know that he said in the Sydney Morning Herald, 'There are some things the public has no particular right to know.' We know that he made statements like, 'Misleading the ABC is not quite the same as misleading the parliament as a political crime.' He is on the record time after time, yet he comes in here and moves a suspension of standing orders in order to indulge himself for the sole purpose of sitting on the government benches for just a few minutes during the division that is about to come. Just for a few minutes they can sit over here and fantasise that somehow after the August 2010 election they did not completely blow the negotiations with the crossbenchers and that since then they actually have had a positive thing to say about something.

You would think they would come in here and move a suspension of standing orders to talk about the economy, to talk about jobs, to talk about the environment, to talk about social policy or even to debate the Paid Parental Leave scheme. But what we see from those opposite is relentless negativity. That is what they say. They want to avoid a debate on paid parental leave, which is the next item of business to be dealt with, because the Leader of the Opposition, as he told the caucus room yesterday, is welded to the $2.7 billion a year scheme. He has no idea how it is going to be funded properly; it just adds to the $70 billion black hole, but he is welded to it. He might be welded to it, but it is rusting out there in the sun. If you cannot find a way to pay for your policies it is no wonder that you cannot come up with anyone. That is why the member for Moncrieff said on Sky last night that he believed the coalition needed to move the political debate towards policy based issues. He said:

I don't think I'm letting the cat out of the bag when I say people feel that we are not being proactive enough in terms of outlining the policies that we would bring into government …

Fortunately, the member for Moncrieff is not in this place at the moment, because he would be devastated by the fact that a suspension of standing orders has been brought on yet again—another negative statement.

We know that when the Leader of the Opposition was elected, he paraphrased Barry Goldwater, who said, 'I will offer a choice, not an echo,' when he ran for the Republican nomination in 1964. The Leader of the Opposition said, 'The job of the opposition is to be an alternative, not an echo; to provide a choice, not a copy.' We know that he paraphrased a little bit. He has modelled himself on Barry Goldwater in a number of ways. Barry Goldwater also said, 'My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones.' That is what Barry Goldwater had to say. It reflects everything that is said about this Leader of the Opposition who has modelled himself on Barry Goldwater completely. That is why the Democrats slogan of 'In your guts, you know he's nuts,' is so appropriate for this Leader of the Opposition.

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