Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

We, as elected members of either this place or the other place, should be encouraging debate around very important policy issues like higher education. So why would the government and a government member try to stifle that debate? Simply because they do not agree with this government's views, or that individual members' articulation of the government's policy. What we need in this country is debate about the issue of higher education going forward to ensure that all Australians, not just those whose families credit card is large enough to pay for them, can go to university. Once again, what we have seen from this government is another backflip—yet another one. They are in chaos; they really are in chaos. They are out there trying to govern to protect the Prime Minister's job. That is what they are doing. Anyone who does not support the likes of the 'enforcer' of the government, who has been referred to in this article as Mr Nikolic—