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

This is an extraordinary position being put by the opposition. Earlier today the member for Cook said that he did not want to politicise the tragedy. Yet, on the same day that this has occurred, the opposition interrupt question time to bring on a motion about business in the House. What is more, the Leader of the Opposition, who has continually used extreme language about a range of issues, today, the day of this tragedy, spoke about the government dying of shame. The sort of language and political discourse created by the Leader of the Opposition does no credit to his great party, does no credit to this parliament and does no credit to this nation.

This motion has been moved in the context of attempting to shut down question time yet again. It was done at a quarter to three so that when Play School comes on, about now, they will have had their 10 minutes from the Leader of the Opposition and five minutes from the member for Cook. They did it because they have put the member for North Sydney in witness protection. We asked two questions in a row about his melting down on the 7.30 program last night, so they shut question time down. And the reason they should not have shut down question time is that we were just getting started! We were just getting started about what they knew—

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