Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It was very awkward, member for Brand, indeed! It was a cringe-worthy effort. But what was even more unsettling is the fact that you have the second Leader of the Opposition in this place attempting to destabilise—it is clear, everyone can read it; people in this place who have been familiar with politics can see it—and trying to undermine the Prime Minister—undermine the Prime Minister when he is here; undermine the Prime Minister when he is at the G20—and not allow for a unity of purpose when it comes to running government. And we simply cannot afford that, and the budget cannot afford that. If we are to encourage those types of savings and changes to go through, we simply cannot have a situation where the second Leader of the Opposition is fighting and leading a rearguard action against the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. And those reports actually get out into the public. We find out about it quickly. Any time that a decision is made on that side of this place, we find out in the media today—be it the introduction of the Christopher Pyne border patrol, or border force, in this place, spying on their own people, or be it some of the meetings that they are having about economic policy. It is simply unacceptable. As I said, I agree with the Treasurer: we need unity, we need bipartisanship, and we need the backbench to actually work with the front bench of the coalition to make that happen—otherwise we are going to be in a way worse spot. And the country cannot afford the division and dysfunction.

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