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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I take note of Senator Minchin’s failure to act as the newly appointed Leader of the Government in the Senate by his refusal to reprimand Senator Heffernan, who has yet again engaged in behaviour unbecoming of a senator and yet again publicly intimidated a colleague—yet again. It was only a fortnight ago that John Howard was at the Press Club bemoaning the decline of standards of personal behaviour in Australia. He complained that reality TV and vulgarisms were overtaking our television sets and that, as a result, and I quote, ‘We are not polite enough to each other.’ That was the Prime Minister. Well, how much Big Brother has Senator Heffernan been watching if he thinks that telling his colleague, and I quote, ‘Blow it out of your arse,’ is an appropriate way to speak in a public place? Telling a fellow senator to ‘blow it out of your arse’ with a raised voice, in public, is a new high-water mark—