Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Here we've got Senator Wong complaining, very disrespectfully and very arrogantly, about the fact that we are suggesting that we also deal with the address-in-reply. Well, do you know what? Again, it's more positions than in the Kama Sutra. In the last parliament, Senator Wong complained about the fact that it took us so long to deal with the address-in-reply, so here we are. We're from the government. We're here to help. We're here to be accommodating. We say: Senator Wong is keen for us to deal swiftly with the address-in-reply, so we are accommodating that by bringing it on and making appropriate time available.

It is actually arrogant and disrespectful to suggest that it is somehow a bad sign that the government has respect for our constitutional arrangement, for the Governor-General and for, of course, the importance of the address-in-reply in our constitutional arrangement. For you to come in here and suggest that that somehow is a sign of not having an agenda is incredibly disrespectful and a new low from the Australian Labor Party. Anybody who listened to the Governor-General's address to this chamber and to the parliament would have heard very clearly about the extensive agenda that this government has in this parliament—an extensive agenda to build a stronger economy, to create more jobs, to ensure that the Australian people have the best possible opportunity to get ahead and to ensure that the Australian people are safe and secure.

The Australian Labor Party need to decide whose side they're on. Whose side are you on in the Australian Labor Party? I mean, here you are suggesting that you're going to stand up for foreign terrorist fighters. Here you are suggesting that you're going to stop working families around Australia from getting more of their own money into their pockets. What are the priorities of the Labor Party under Mr Albanese? I thought it was bad when Mr Shorten was the leader of the Labor Party. Let me tell you: I never thought it could get worse. Well, it has. (Time expired)