Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for pointing out how important it is to look constituents in the eyes, because that's exactly what the Prime Minister did to the nation 97 times. We've heard the excuses that tried to walk back that promise, and we haven't heard that promise repeated in this place. But it's important to note that that promise was made 28 times after the invasion of Ukraine. He looked down the cameras into the eyes of millions of Australians and was so desperate to be sitting on those benches that he kept repeating that promise, and he now acts like it doesn't exist. The member for Hasluck will forgive us when we take those words and say that they are, indeed, well chosen and ones that the Prime Minister should have adopted.

I've said on many occasions there were lessons to learn for our party, and we have heard from the crossbench, from the other side, and even from our own side that integrity was up at the top of the list. There is no more important example of integrity than when you give a promise, you keep a promise; that you will be judged by what you do, not what you say; and you will be particularly judged by what you do after you no longer have a reason to hold on to a falsehood. And that's what we are talking about here.

See this speech in context