Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know the senator opposite is under a preselection threat over in Victoria, and we see her come out with basically a smear. Is it any wonder people are cynical about politics? We can see why from the performance of Senator Hume opposite. We can also see why from Senator Burston. On an issue which the Australian people have taken seriously, the issue of what we saw with the Australian cricket team over the weekend—and I've been astonished at the response from the community—the best we can get from Senator Hume, the best we can get from Senator Burston, is to come in here and run a smear campaign. That's all they've got. They've got nothing left to offer the people of Australia other than coming in here and offering a smear. Is it any wonder that the public are so cynical about politics, when you see efforts like that? Absolutely not. This is the best they've got.

We know that from time to time people in politics do the wrong thing, and they absolutely get held accountable for that. What we see from those here is nothing more than a smear campaign. We saw it started off by Senator Burston.

Senator Sterle interjecting—