Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting the member for Grayndler is sitting there stony-faced as talk about civil war ensues. The honourable member knows very well indeed that cabinet processes are confidential. He knows very well. But what he should know—what he should understand—is that, when it comes to civil war and factional politics, the Labor Party is in a league of its own. So frightened of his opponents in the Labor Party, he cleaved to Senator Dastyari like a drowning man clinging to a piece of wood in a shipwreck. He hung onto him—nothing untoward!

Let's just reflect on this. Let's reflect on this. This, they tell us, is the party of fairness. I hear it all: the Labor Party is always talking about fairness. I ask honourable members: how is it fair for a senator earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, vastly above average weekly earnings, when he has a debt he does not want to pay—people often do not want to pay their debts—to ring up a Chinese company and say, 'Pick up the tab, mate; pick up the tab'? Do we imagine he could have done that if he were not a senator? So Senator Dastyari was elevated to the position of senator by the people of New South Wales.

See this speech in context