Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

As we were submitted to that 20 minutes of diatribe, we all got an image of Eric in his bathroom practising in front of the mirror—adjusting his tie, puffing his chest out and showing how outraged he was. What a pathetic performance. Is that the best he can do when he has actually prepared for this stunt? Let us be clear that this is nothing more than a stunt. Those opposite cannot wreck question time in the House of Representatives today, so they want to wreck it in the Senate—but they cannot even do that properly.

The only reason they have moved this motion of no confidence on the minerals resource rent tax is that the good ladies and gentlemen of the press are sitting up in the gallery. Everybody knows that is the only reason this motion has been moved by the opposition. It is not orthodox practice in the Senate and until now, in general, we have avoided the sorts of tactics that we have seen in the House of Representatives, where there is no interest in question time, no interest in discussing public policy and no interest in talking about anything important to the future of the country—only an interest in stunts. Everybody watching knows that this motion is nothing more than a grandstanding stunt, a tactic by those opposite because there is no question time in the Reps, the press gallery is here and it is the turn of the Senate coalition to look like they can blow the place up as well. That is the sum total of this opposition's contribution to public policy debate in this country.

I am happy to talk about the economy and jobs. I know that those opposite are not interested in talking about jobs—it is obvious in here that they do not want to talk about Australian jobs. We saw that when Senator Lundy was on her feet talking about Australian jobs. We saw it with the usual smart alec contribution of Senator Brandis—