Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has the call.

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

I won't refer to the glass jaw, but I will refer to the fact that in the time that we've had, that we've been in this House for this parliament—I'm talking about the member for Monash who is no longer sitting with you, I'm talking about the fact that the member for Calare is no longer sitting with you and I'm talking about the fact that the member for Aston left your side, joined ours, raising the average of both sides. And now the walk-out on his own party is led by himself! He's not the only frontbencher to walk out on his leadership—the members for Calare, Berowra, McPherson and Senator Payne and the former member for Aston and the former member of Fadden all walked out on his leadership as well.

In terms of the empty frontbench, Andrew Bolt has suggested who should fill it. Andrew Bolt has suggested the empty frontbench should be filled by the member for Cook, not realising the member for Cook possibly already holds portfolios there! We then had the Leader of the Opposition, himself, write in The Spectator about potentially Tony Abbott coming back, having an argument as to: do they go back to Morrison, do they go back to Abbot or do they do what the shadow Treasurer is doing this week and go back to the HR Nicholls Society, an organisation described in 1986 by Bob Hawke as a group of 'political troglodytes and economic lunatics'?

Those opposite have a shrinking party room; a shrinking frontbench, which has shrunk even more than I thought during the course of this answer, and a leader who we saw shrinking before our eyes when he spoke yesterday.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.