Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Let me thank the member for Mitchell for his question, and acknowledge that as he is a former Army Reserve officer he is a man with deep interest in the military.

It is now a matter of national attention that Senator Conroy has opened his account as Labor's Defence spokesman with a grubby and premeditated slur against one of our most respected three-star Lieutenant General officers, accusing him of a political cover-up no less. Six months of near total silence from the opposition's shadow Defence minister and he decides the best way to come out and support those who support us is to sling mud at a general's face.

Let me tell you what the military says. It says, 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept'. And what the nation wants to know and what this parliament wants to know, Leader of the Opposition, is whether you accept the comments—whether you—

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