Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Cormann is a big sook. He is so weak, so full of bluster and bluff, yet when it comes down to it he has to get the chair to help him in a debate in this Senate. What a pathetic performance. When the public have listened to those three Liberal senators, they will wonder what they are on about. The reality is that the priority for any government—it should be for any opposition—is to get the recovery of this nation underway. Yet what we see the Liberal Party doing is looking at this recovery on the basis of saying, ‘Well, we can actually get some benefit out of this. Let’s put a release out and say, “Give us some money to oppose the levy.”’ When everyone else in the country is putting money in to support Queensland, northern New South Wales, Victoria and now Western Australia, what does the Leader of the Opposition do? The Leader of the Opposition is out there saying, ‘Don’t worry about the levy; don’t worry about putting money in to support the people of Australia that are in trouble—just think about giving more money to the Liberal Party.’

Talk about impugning your motives! I think you have demonstrated quite clearly what your motives are. You are a pathetic rabble. What is happening at the moment is that Tony Abbott’s pasting-over of the differences between the Liberal Party and the National Party is coming apart. We all know that the Liberal Party detests the National Party. We know that the National Party detests the Liberal Party. And we know that those in the Liberal Party detest each other. That is what is driving the response to what should be the most important matter facing any political party in this country, and that is getting the recovery of this nation underway. That is the important thing—the recovery of this nation.

What has been clearly demonstrated by the contributions from the three previous senators is that all they want to do is try to score narrow, meaningless political points when our government is setting about in a decisive manner to repair the damage to this nation and to look after Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria. That is what we will do. We will not be diverted by your petty political points. We will get on with building this nation. We are a government that are always turned to when there is a problem. We handled the financial crisis; we will handle this crisis.