Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Perth would know, a dissent motion from the Speaker is a very wide-ranging debate, and I am taking the opportunity to be wide ranging, because the sadness for the opposition is that national security was supposed to be the distraction and now they have fallen upon this as the distraction. It is things that the Minister for Agriculture is accused of doing in a private capacity well before he was a minister of the Crown. The opposition has waited until five past three today to ask a question and now move a motion of dissent in the Speaker.

The reality is that the opposition is now trying to find a new weapon of mass distraction from the budget. This government has absolute confidence in the Minister for Agriculture. The Minister for Agriculture is doing an outstanding job. He has recovered the live cattle trade. He is increasing the agricultural exports from this country. Agricultural prices are increasing. States like mine in South Australia are benefiting from increased sheepmeat prices and increased wheat prices. The Minister for Agriculture is doing a fantastic job. He and the Minister for Industry are reforming country of origin labelling laws in this country. He is not overreacting to television reports and closing down whole industries. He is building the country, and the Prime Minister and the government have absolute confidence in the member for New England to continue as the Minister for Agriculture.

It is quite possible that this is the worst opposition ever in Australia's history. It is quite likely that the Leader of the Opposition is the weakest and laziest Leader of the Opposition in Australia's history. The reality is that they would have been better off having a proper, drawn out brawl for the Labor leadership and fought over what they believed in rather than all forming a circle after the trauma of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years and saying, 'Let's all pretend there are no dysfunctional elements of our party.' They have not cleansed themselves. The public knows it, and on that note I move:

That the motion be put.

Question agreed to.

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