Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

() (): Saying that two days is a long time in politics is very true. Yesterday the government had a majority; today they don't. I don't want to be interpreted or assumed to be quoting the Leader of the Opposition, but his comment was: 'We ruled in this place with only 72 members of parliament. We had a minority government and we never lost a single vote, because we went to the trouble of explaining to the people on the crossbenches that what we were doing was right.' Well, a lot of times I didn't believe it was right and I didn't go along with it. But he said: 'There is a name for convincing members of parliament that this is the right thing to do. That name is democracy.' Much as I love Anthony Albanese, I don't know that that would be the case if he had a couple of votes up his sleeve in this place. But now the government and the mainstream parties in Australia have to accept that they no longer issue the edicts and make us all jump when they crack the whip. Those days are over. The days when you big boys could walk into this place and smash the dairy industry of Australia to pieces and close down manufacturing are over. (Time expired)

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