Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I will give him some due here. I know that the Deputy Prime Minister is embarrassed to be sitting in question time every day so illegitimately. He's embarrassed to be here. But this Prime Minister leaves him with no choice.

The arrogance of all this is that the Prime Minister wants us to believe that we're better off having a minister who sits with a big black cloud over his head than having someone else in that position. This is the height of arrogance. This minister is not indispensable—far from it. I can name plenty of his colleagues around the benches opposite who would do a far better job. For their own future career prospects, I'll choose not to name them. But this is not about the ability of the Deputy Prime Minister; it's all about the capacity of the man sitting opposite to hang onto his job. He wants us to believe that a guy with a big black cloud hanging over his head, and with a poor record, in any case—an agriculture minister who has done nothing for the agriculture sector in four years—is better off in that job with that big black cloud over his head than anyone else sitting around the benches. I know that they're starting to ask questions about that. They're starting to ask questions as to why this bloke gets to stick around despite his poor performance over four years and despite the fact that he's probably in breach of section 44 of the Constitution. So the rumblings have begun. The rumblings have begun in earnest.

But one thing is clear: the Deputy Prime Minister knows that he's going to a by-election. That's why they're on the campaign trail. That's why they're booking their campaign offices. That's why the leaflets are already being handed out. This Prime Minister should— (Time expired)

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