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

This is the 49th suspension moved by those opposite and the third attempt at suspension today. I noticed that the Leader of the Opposition would not associate himself with those sorts of tactics by having the Manager of Opposition Business and the Deputy Leader do it. Today the Leader of the Opposition had the Leader of the National Party ask the first question. They started low and they got lower—and they got lower as the day went on. In the last contribution they hit a nadir; they hit the bottom of the pit.

Those opposite will do anything rather than discuss the issues that are of importance to the Australian people, and that is why standing orders should not be suspended. It should not be the case that this parliament gets distracted because those opposite have absolutely nothing positive to say about the economy, about employment, about the environment, about social policy or about the mining boom. And it is on a day when the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill will go through the other place and will become law as a result of that. But they want to discuss anything rather than a suspension of standing orders.

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