Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I just said I withdraw. So Senator Heffernan raising his voice in a public area is a new high-water mark for the Howard government’s arrogance and a new low for Australian politics. Speaking in this way is not ‘a robust early morning greeting’, as it was pathetically described by Senator Heffernan; it is appalling personal behaviour which demeans both Senator Heffernan and this chamber. De-Anne Kelly is right to label this type of behaviour as workplace harassment. This is especially so in light of the fact that this is just the latest in a series of incidents of intimidating behaviour on the part of Senator Heffernan. Before publicly abusing Senator Nash, he was stalking Senator Joyce through the corridors of parliament, gatecrashing his doorstop interviews and physically intimidating him on the floor of the Senate. Before that, he was accusing High Court judges of paedophilia. And John Howard is lecturing Australians—