Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Getting big and important public policy reforms done is never easy. We know that as a government because we have been a government that has sought to shape the nation for the future and to make it stronger and fairer. It is not surprising to me that, when we are talking about something as contested as media reform, we have seen a fast and furious debate, and if we look around the world it is not just us. What would the Deputy Leader of the Opposition have said to a process in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom that had the final deal crunched between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition at 2.30 in the morning? Presumably, she would have criticised the process. But members of her sister a political party that saw the need to act in the public interest and actually get a reform through presumably thought engaging in that process was important for the people of the United Kingdom. When you are dealing with these big, complex reforms—

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting—

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