Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will try to deliver this 10-minute speech without yelling at the other side, if I can manage that. I think I probably can. I would like to take up a few points the member for Riverina made before I address the specifics of the matter of public importance. Firstly, on his remarks about the fact that over the last day or so in this parliament there has been an incredible amount of time dealing with the issue of the Speaker's role and that now things can get back on track, I just want to make the point that, as much as the opposition comes into this place and tries to tear up this parliament and spend incredible amounts of time on suspensions of standing orders and an incredible amount of time literally brawling in this place, the thing they affect in this place is the status and the operation of this parliament. What they have not managed to do, because they have not been able to make a case strong enough for the crossbenchers to support their policy position, is interfere with the governance of the country.

The government was still operating yesterday. Despite the incredible amount of time we spent doing the work of the parliament here yesterday in electing the Speaker, the government continued to do what it does. All of the brawling that we see every day here, the suspensions and the time-wasting motions that require an absolute majority when there is no way you can get one but we spend two hours wasting our time on anyway, all of that which tears up this parliament—

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