Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

'Sound advice' says Senator Abetz—well, maybe Mr Abbott, the Prime Minister, will carry it through, given that Senator Abetz is saying that that is sound advice!

Then Senator Lambie went on to say: 'I think they are disgraceful. They need to put someone up there who has communication skills and is not prepared to try and trick you, because that is not the way forward.' Can I say to Senator Lambie: I know you are new in here, but you should learn very quickly about Senator Abetz; you got him in one, and you have certainly belled the cat in relation to Senator Abetz. What you said was: 'We tried to give him a little bit of trust, and they have blown it out of the water. So I guess it is just open slather.' But why would you think that Senator Abetz would do anything other than mislead you? It was a political shambles. It was arrogance and incompetence. They sought to put the guillotine in and then they tried to filibuster their own guillotine. This was a pathetic performance by the coalition, and I think it epitomises everything that is wrong with this government. It is about a government that lied its way to power. It is a government that would lie to other senators. It is a government that would mislead senators as they misled the country. (Time expired)