Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not believe that this motion is worth supporting and that a censure is due. We hold that view for a number of reasons. First of all, when I was first a member of parliament I was in opposition and it seemed to me that the important thing was to attack the government as furiously as you could—and try to make the anger not too confected, by the way. You had to try to create a sense of sincerity and, unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition fails on that test. Secondly, one of the things that oppositions should be careful of is trying to censure governments every single day of the week, because if you overuse the censure vehicle—

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