Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I commend to those opposite, who seem to be troubled by the lack of integrity in their own government, the fact that we have an amendment before the House which is to this effect:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the House:

(1) declines to give the bill a second reading;

(2) notes that, in every Budget, this Government has tried to cut the pension or increase the pension age to 70;

(3) further notes that the cuts to Newstart in this bill will hurt redundant workers and push them towards poverty; and

(4) criticises the Government for its cruel cuts to pensions and social security".

I'm talking generally about the integrity that this government does not have and won't get by adding the word 'integrity' to this bill or any other bill or any other program that this government thinks it can claim integrity for when it does not have any integrity. And chief among the proofs that this government doesn't have any integrity is its disgraceful performance in circling around to protect the member for Hume, which has now tainted the Attorney-General after his performance in question time today. We can understand why the Attorney-General might have kept silent last week, when the member for Hume and the Prime Minister were questioned about the scant—

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