Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I am coming to the point. Mr Jackson went to jail for selling early releases for prisoners, as a prison minister. We are always told that these are aberrations, that these are isolated instances, and that they do not go to the very heart of the culture of the New South Wales Labor Party. Mr Carr used to straddle New South Wales as some sort of political colossus, so I must say that it did bring a smile to my face when Senator Carr, on Four Corners, in reference to Eddie Obeid, said that he was:

… a marginal figure, someone lurking in the corridors, never to be taken that seriously…

That is the old Deidre Chambers defence. You might recall Bill Hunter in the movie Muriel's Wedding, when he was the mayor of Porpoise Spit, walking into a restaurant and his mistress, Deidre Chambers, was there. He saw her and he said: 'Oh, Deidre Chambers. What a coincidence!' We are meant to believe that every time Bob Carr had any association, or was even in the same room as Eddie Obeid, it was: 'Eddie Obeid. What a coincidence! Fancy seeing you here!' They were cheek by jowl. Mr Carr chooses to ignore the method, the manner, the when of the appointment of Eddie Obeid to the frontbench. He prefers to say that it was actually Mr Iemma who gave him a special status. It was Mr Carr who first appointed Mr Obeid as a minister of the Crown.

You know whenever Mr Carr is under pressure because he always reaches for some sort of Chairman Mao story. We saw that on Four Corners when he said: 'Forget about how Eddie Obeid was appointed, let me tell you about how I took on the 'Terribles'. Let me tell you about when I had Eddie Obeid in my office and I pushed him out of the ministry. I got so frustrated I had to reach for my Chairman Mao jar, which held my pencils and pens, and I threw it against the bookcase and, oh boy, I tell you, go and see Barry O'Farrell. Book an appointment with Barry, and if you go into the office you will still see the bookcase and you will still see the nick out of the bookcase the shattering jar caused'. That is part of the Bob Carr—