Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is that those opposite want to turn this parliament into a kangaroo court. There are two very important principles at stake here. One is the presumption of innocence and the other is the separation of powers. Somehow those opposite want to say that this parliament should be making definitive judgments, not the courts of law. That is the proposition that goes to the very core of the question that has been put by the Manager of Opposition Business. They want to turn the parliament into a kangaroo court for their own political purposes, because there is no institution, there is no principle, that this Leader of the Opposition will not trash.

This is not a consistent position from those opposite. We have already heard some words from a number on the cross bench here about how it is important to have the separation of powers in the parliament—that the parliament should not become a kangaroo court—but someone else has said something pretty telling about this. Of course, that was the current Leader of the Opposition, in a debate in this parliament back in 2007, when one member for parliament, the member for Bowman, was the subject of very serious allegations. The member for Bowman was the subject of serious allegations, and this is what the then Leader of the Opposition said.

Ms O'Dwyer interjecting—

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