Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The outrage that they have about the minister being in a situation, in the questions that have been raised in the debate—we've had all the different questions raised in the debate. It was bizarre while we had the earlier ones in a question about relevance on this one. But, as we heard the different questions, a whole series of them simply went to: did a minister conduct due diligence and talk to stakeholders? I'm not surprised they are shocked that ministers do that these days. It used to be the case that a minister wouldn't even have to talk to colleagues, because the Prime Minister could just talk to a mirror and have the whole cabinet present! They were all there! Who needed stakeholders? Who needed anyone to consult with? The Prime Minister of the day could just have a quiet chat with himself, and everything was okay.

Amidst all that humiliation, they want to have a procedural debate. We have a fine Speaker here. I'll tell you what: I remember some of the speakers that were put up by those opposite. We all talk in very reverent tones about former speaker Tony Smith. We very rarely talk about the others. One of them is here. One of them is long gone. We very rarely talk about the others. We have somebody who, in the tradition of former speaker Tony Smith, has abided by the traditions of this place, but the lack of respect for the traditions of this place, if it was ever on show, was on show by them on Monday. It was on show by them on Monday, showing no respect for the parliament, showing no respect as they tried to egg on the public galleries, showing no respect for any of that—

Honourable members interjecting—

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