Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

There are some other people who should be offering apologies, Mr Deputy President, starting with the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten, and all of those opposite who are acting in a disgraceful act of distraction from a contemptible record of government. Fancy coming in here and pretending the Australian Senate is some sort of comedy show. Fancy coming in here and thinking this is a place for gag after gag on a day when the final budget figures of the last year of the Labor government have been handed down demonstrating what a disgraceful mob of managers the Labor Party were. Fancy coming in here on a day when the United Nations Security Council is meeting with the leader of the United States, our Prime Minister and many other major leaders of the world to discuss security issues facing the world and running this foolish line of questioning. Fancy coming in here in a week when we have seen a tragedy occur in Victoria and thinking that this is a sensible thing to ask questions about. Never have I seen such an error of judgement. Never have I seen such a poor hand played. Never have I seen an opposition engage in such an obvious attempt to distract from their failures and their track record with something that is completely foolish, completely silly and completely beneath debate in this chamber.

Today the final budget outcome for 2013-14 was delivered. Not one question on that was asked by those opposite.