Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say, I have been in this place for 15 years and I have never seen a minister, even in the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, behave in the way that this Minister is behaving tonight. You can treat us with contempt. I have no issues with that. But you treat the Australian people with contempt and do not even attempt to answer any of the questions. You could answer these questions by saying, 'I don't know.' You could answer the question by saying, 'There is no answer.' You could answer the question by saying, 'It is for the parliament to decide. But, instead, the Minister tonight representing the Albanese government, Minister Watt—I am assuming that you're tired and you want to go home; well, guess what, we still have more questions, serious questions, to go through—has now decided that he will just sit in his chair and say nothing. That is an indictment, quite frankly, on the way this government is handling this entire process. You did not have a constitutional convention. There are no documents other than a glossy brochure and a handy little document that the public is able to refer to. This is the one chance that the opposition gets—