Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Once again we have seen the walking vuvuzela of Australian politics, the Leader of the Opposition, with his no, no, no and his relentless negativity. He has nothing to say to the Australian people. What is worse about this all opposition, no leader opposite is that he is trashing the foundations of our parliamentary democracy. During those 17 days after the last election we determined a new set of functioning rules. For the first months after the August election we had 20 questions in here every day with one exception, when the Leader of the Opposition moved a suspension of standing orders. We expect a suspension of standing orders to happen every now and again when there is something urgent before the House for which there is no alternative but to move a suspension of standing orders in order for it to be debated.

But the farce has been exposed today. The member for Cook has submitted a matter of public importance on asylum seekers, which has been accepted by you, Mr Speaker, and on which there will be a debate after question time concludes. That debate will include the member for Cook, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and at least two other speakers from each side—so the farce is exposed. Even though there will be a full debate in this parliament on the MPI that has been put forward by the member for Cook, so hopeless are they, so negative are they, that they have moved a suspension of standing orders which will knock off their own debate. That is similar to what happened on a previous sitting day of parliament when an MPI was put in by the member for Wentworth. The opposition moved a suspension which meant that the member for Wentworth did not get an opportunity to have a proper debate on his MPI on the National Broadband Network.

Way over 40 per cent of question times have now been disrupted by the Leader of the Opposition. On 11 separate occasions, out of the 26 question times this year, he has moved a suspension of standing orders. That has real consequences. Decent oppositions, oppositions that have an alternative program, have always taken the opportunity to put forward their alternative program before this parliament to try to hold the executive government to account. But those opposite have simply given up. As a result of the Leader of the Opposition's actions, we in this parliament have missed out on over 100 questions—over 100 questions given up which they could have asked of the executive.

Mr Morrison interjecting—

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