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

Premier Newman has placed a gag order on community organisations once again in order to stop them speaking out on government policy—and it is little wonder, given what his member Mr Driscoll is going through, that he does not want community organisations talking about the performance of government. So we will not be lectured by that mob over there who represent not just years but decades of tradition of trying to shut down voices in our community, whether they be community organisations or whether they be the trade union movement.

Today the Leader of the Opposition could not resist going back to his roots, going back to just saying no to everything, going back to negative Tony, back to nasty Tony. He has been sitting there stewing away. Every day we have seen the 'Mark Riley moments', where he sits there trying to keep control of his temper, trying to calm down the anger every day, and it has boiled to the surface. What we see with this motion to suspend standing orders moved here today is an attempt to release that pressure valve. We understand it must be difficult for a bloke with his character to keep it in control for so long, because we know what his character is about. Today it fitted in with his general attitude to life, because this is a bloke that has never seen a billionaire he did not want to embrace. This is a bloke who can be always relied upon to back-in the big end of town. We have here this legislation that will be debated later in the week, but they did not wait to look at the legislation before they said they would oppose it. I reckon it was two words that turned them off: public interest. As soon as they saw that, they said, 'Well, we know we are against that. We do not have to look at the detail. We do not have to wait for the committee processes. We know that we are against it.' They are against action on climate change, they are against the NBN, they are against taking action against the big miners, they are against national hospital reform, they are against assisting the steel and car industries, they are against parliamentary reform and they are against the Parliamentary Budget Office.

See this speech in context