Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am surprised that the Assistant Treasurer has not explained yet why the government has decided to go down this path and pull this particular measure—

Mr Bradbury interjecting—

No, the government simply moved an amendment to its own bill. He has not explained, after all the encouragement we have given him. We want to encourage you, old sunshine! We want him to get up there and tell the truth. Let the sun shine in—that is what we say. Let there be a transparent hung parliament. Let the Independents—like the member for Lyne, the member for New England and the member for Denison—come in and help the sun to shine, because now the government is amending its own bill and it will not tell us why. Oh, dear. Do you know why? He does not know why. He does not know why they are amending their own bill. Given that we have had five assistant treasurers in 4½ years, you would think that by the time they get to the fifth they would get it right. But no. We have him coming to this place. Old Swannie has wheeled him out. He said, 'You go out and do it, Admiral. You tell them that we're pulling this out of the bill.' The old admiral, taking instructions from the 'chief of defence', says, 'Righto, sir. I'll do it.'

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