Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

The Deputy Speaker is doing a terrific job in current circumstances and I think being polite to someone doing their job in these circumstances as well as she is doing deserves that. I congratulate her for it. Deputy Speaker, while your circumstances, acting in this position, are unique, this is also a unique event in the history of this House—a budget unravelling before our eyes, a budget which was only delivered some six weeks ago, in the current parliamentary session. The normal procedure of bills following the budget to implement the measures announced on budget night by the Treasurer is unravelling, without explanation.

I think it is extraordinary of the Assistant Treasurer, who is not known for not wanting to talk and explain the government's views or his own views on things like immigration policy up near Darwin. In fact, he is such a detailed researcher that he looks in great detail into issues which affect his constituency. We know during the last election he took the trouble to travel all the way to Darwin to see about the situation in relation to—

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