Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I have rapidly become a fan of these new standing orders. I was a little bit sceptical this morning, but I have since rapidly become a fan. It was in the pre-election forecasts. The previous government released it. The answer to the member's question was in the pre-election forecast. It was released publicly. We held a press conference. Thanks for coming! Ask another one. Do you want another one? I will give you another go if you like.

We need to get back to the explanatory memorandum because I was only up to page 7. This is an important part. The House needs to know that this bill is compatible with human rights. It is there on page 7. That was important to include in the explanatory memorandum: it complies with human rights. Page 8 is blank. We get to page 9 and that is the index. So the contents and the index takes up two pages of the 11-page explanatory memorandum. Pages 10 and 11 are blank too. We do not get what the member for Warringah would have called, when he was Leader of the Opposition, the best possible arguments for it—or maybe we do on pages 10 and 11. We get the best possible arguments for this bill on pages 10 and 11 of this arrogant explanatory memorandum—treating this House with contempt. It is the same contempt we were treated with in question time by this executive that says they will only answer the questions they choose to answer. They even choose whether they answer them accurately—the Prime Minister of Australia misleading the House twice in his first question time as Prime Minister. It was not just the member for Warringah who said quite a bit about the debt cap when they were in opposition.

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