Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry, through the chair. Just last week I opened eight facilities in a whole variety of locations. On Friday I was up at Murphys Creek, and that was a pretty solemn occasion. It was an eerie experience to be up in Murphys Creek at that opening.

Senator Johnston interjecting—

You can laugh at that, Senator Johnston. That is a disgrace, laughing at a town that lost people in their community, and you are using that as an opportunity to make fun of Murphys Creek. What a disgrace. What an absolute disgrace you are.

Following that, we went to Mount Alford and later on in the afternoon we went into other areas of the electorate of Wright. One of the schools I visited was the Bribie Island State High School. That school received a new science and language centre, where they are able to carry out experiments and even learn foreign languages. The school has an arrangement with the University of the Sunshine Coast, where students are able to begin learning Indonesian online, with access to lectures and lecturers.

At other schools I have seen huge halls which can now fit whole student bodies into the one area. For some schools, this has been the first time they have been able to address all the students. I would like to acknowledge some opposition colleagues from the House of Representatives who have come along to those BER openings. There is the member for Longman, Wyatt Roy; the member for Wright, Scott Buchholz; and the member for Forde, Bert Van Manen. Picture this: you go along to these openings, and here you have the member for Longman, the member for Forde or the member for Wright. You have this huge conga line of wannabes—disingenuous groupies, as I refer to them. They turn up for something they opposed, the BER, but no doubt they turn up for the photo opportunities. This is hypocrisy at its greatest. What stark hypocrisy to see these disingenuous people turning up at school hall openings that they opposed. Once again, we see a huge conga line of disingenuous LNP members from the House of Representatives turning up for the chance at a photo opportunity at school openings. And I am not trying to make fun of young Wyatt Roy, but young Wyatt Roy at some of the openings—