Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, on two issues.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I claim to have been misrepresented by the Minister for Health and Ageing, who selectively quoted from a speech and suggested, very explicitly, that I was soft on drugs. He quoted one section of my speech. If you read the sentence around it I think he perhaps even excluded words within the sentence. What I said was this:

Reverend Bill Crews runs the Exodus Foundation in Ashfield in my electorate of Grayndler. Every day he deals with the desperation and destitution wreaked by heroin dependence. Heroin is a bad problem. But it is not the heroin per se that causes all these problems, it is often the criminalisation of the supply and use of heroin. Because heroin is illegal, addicts are criminalised. Most addicts do not start as criminals, but their habit makes them criminals. And then, in order to support their habit, a vast proportion of addicts engage in far more serious crimes.

I think that is fairly self-evident.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member has made his point.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Secondly, Mr Speaker, the Treasurer has suggested that somehow in my question today I misled the parliament. My question raised two issues. One was a quote from him. The paragraph two up from him supporting emissions trading in that speech stated:

Price signals in an efficient open market will promote new and more efficient investment, give incentives for further exploration and promote more efficient extraction and use of key resources. As prices rise the incentive to improve the efficiency with which we use scarce resources becomes stronger. And alternative fuels become more commercial.

I could not have described emissions trading better myself.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler has made his point.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a further point, Mr Speaker—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member wishes to make a further personal explanation?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker, I do. It has been a bad day; it has been a shocker.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member claims to have been misrepresented again. He may proceed.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer went on in his statement to suggest that I owed him an apology. I note that my question had two parts. The second part asked for confirmation that he submitted a proposal to cabinet in 2003 for a market based national emissions trading scheme for greenhouse gases. I notice that this is the second time we have asked this question and the Treasurer did not distance himself from that.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler will resume his seat.