Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's with some sadness that I see and note and have to say that the Labor Party clearly have no idea of foreign matters and seek to trivialise very, very serious matters. It's like Senator Dastyari, when talking about the prospective major terrorist attack on an airline travelling out of Australia, equating it to his book being of halal standard. This is the Labor Party all over. They don't understand foreign affairs, and clearly none of the speakers who have spoken today, including, regrettably, the person who on a change of government would be foreign minister—and God forgive us that that may ever happen—understand what it's all about when an Australian parliamentarian like Mr Shorten can't prosecute his attacks or his vendettas within the Australian political scene but chooses to go to a foreign country to try to make a political point.

We are indeed fortunate in this country to have someone of the calibre of Julie Bishop as our foreign minister. She is universally recognised as a great foreign minister, and she continues to do that day by day. We're also extremely fortunate in Australia to have an Attorney-General of the capability and learning of Senator Brandis. In spite of the Labor Party's strange vendetta against Senator Brandis, continuing to bring up Senate inquiries into matters involving Senator Brandis, each one of those inquiries has clearly demonstrated that Senator Brandis has at all occasions discharged his duties in accordance with the law and extremely capably.

This is a sad day for the Australian parliament when an Australian political leader resorts to a foreign country to mount a political attack within Australia. As was said in question time, we know Mr Shorten has loyalty to very few—certainly not to the union members, $100,000 of whose money it appears he stole to give to a political party. Certainly not—