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

We have just seen, if we needed any reminder, why the Leader of the Opposition is simply not up to the highest office in this land. What we saw when the Leader of the Opposition said across the chamber that the Prime Minister and I had targets on our foreheads—from the political party that quite proudly introduced John Howard's gun laws—was an outrage. Earlier on today we saw a Mark Riley moment from the Leader of the Opposition directed at the chair. Day after day we see that he simply does not have the temperament required of a Prime Minister.

That is why we should not suspend standing orders, because we in this chamber have some big tasks ahead of us. There are challenges ahead—the economy, the environment and social policy. There are a range of issues that we could discuss and that we should be discussing. Yet what we have had, on 50 separate occasions, is the Leader of the Opposition having a premeditated suspension of standing orders attempt, shutting down question time. That is telling the Australian people that he is not interested in trying to hold the government to account on the issues of the day.

The Leader of the Opposition is not interested in debating the economy or jobs. Did we have a single question today about the announcement by Holden, which is significant not just for manufacturing jobs but for all those who depend upon the manufacturing industry? There was not a word. The opposition shut down question time after six questions. In the 43rd Parliament we have already lost 27 hours of question time as a result of their shutting down question time. That is enough time to watch all the Harry Potter movies—all 18 hours—and the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well—another nine hours. It is enough time to fly to Los Angeles and back and it is enough time to complete a course in basic Spanish or Italian. Those opposite have wasted 27 hours and more than 230 questions have been abandoned. No other opposition since Federation have said: 'We don't care about question time. We'll move motions to suspend standing orders day after day, because we're not interested in holding the government to account, we're not interested in debating the economy, we're not interested in debating jobs and we're not interested in debating climate change.'

They are condemned by their own actions, because it is all about the politics. That is what this motion today is about and that is why we should reject it. It is all about cheap political point-scoring and there is no line that is uncrossable by the Leader of the Opposition, as shown by his comment 'targets on foreheads'.

We know there are consequences behind that sort of language. We saw it in the United States last year. We should not hear, from the Leader of the Opposition, the sort of provocative language used by extremists. But, once again, there is no line incapable of being crossed. Perhaps we should not be too harsh, because he is struggling. He said himself, about losing office: 'We all need grief counselling. It's like a bereavement. Not as bad as losing a child or a spouse, but up there with losing a parent.'

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