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

The Leader of the Opposition would know those words because he spoke them himself in 2012. What we've seen from the Leader of the Opposition is a complete inability to maintain a consistency to policy development throughout his political career. He is well known for his policy elasticity, but this stands in stark contrast to the member for Grayndler. One of his gauleiters was at work in The Australian today. He said—and I had better use his correct title—'The member for Grayndler's greatest strength is he is the member for Grayndler.' In other words, the member for Grayndler has always been of the Left and he's never made any pretence about it. I was reminded of those scenes in The West Wing when the President's advisers used to say, 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet.' Imagine if the Leader of the Opposition's advisers said to the Leader of the Opposition, 'Let the Leader of the Opposition be the Leader of the Opposition.' The reality is the Leader of the Opposition wouldn't know which one he was going to be. He wouldn't actually recognise himself because he's changed sides so often. He's had so many policy positions. He's been on so many different sides of the Labor Party. He wouldn't know how to let Shorten be Shorten.

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