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

It was at 6.15 am. People turned up, so I suspect that tomorrow it will be at 5:30 am in Queanbeyan. And then of course when he gets a question that has a simple answer like we saw last Friday from Karen Middleton, a yes or no question, he runs from it—he runs from his own press conferences. Not as fast as a gazelle, but run nonetheless he does. But when he has to take some responsibility and show leadership as the Leader of the Opposition, we see that the leadership comes from the other side but not from this Leader of the Opposition.

We saw Malcolm Turnbull show leadership earlier today, after Cory Bernardi engaged in such a disgraceful, reprehensible attack last night. Cory Bernardi resigned; he did not apologise. The Leader of the Opposition could not bring himself to condemn the latest comments made by Senator Bernardi, who is shadow parliamentary secretary to the Leader of the Opposition. He just does not get it about respect for other people. The problems with the comments were not that they were ill-disciplined; the problem is that they were bigoted and they were disrespectful. The Leader of the Opposition should have shown leadership today.

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