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

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The world view of this ugly conservatism is distinguished by complete absence of optimism, total lack of generosity of spirit and denial that politics all involves ... give as well as take.

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The triumph of fear over hope is palpable.

That was the Leader of the Opposition in an article in 1998 about the One Nation Party. In that article he opposed the politics of fear over the politics of hope, and he opposed the politics of fear over the politics of fact.

Since then we have seen an opposition leader desperate because of his loss. We know that from his own words. The same person who wants to claw back the payments to families, who wants to claw back the education funding, who wants to claw back the assistance to pensioners, veterans, students and the elderly had this to say about losing power:

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. It's very hard.

That is what the Leader of the Opposition had to say about going into opposition. No wonder we say that the quote from Johnson about Goldwater fits: 'In your guts you know he's nuts.' No wonder we say this.

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