Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Hansard source

Fantastic! Even that! And let's not forget the way the government argued each of these issues. Not only have they not said there is a policy reason as to why they have changed their mind but the arguments the government have come up with today are to say, 'But this was always our position.' This was something they always believed.

There is a novel that was written some years ago, where it said, 'This is now our view, therefore this has always been our view.' I never thought we would end up with that being the position of the government of Australia. And yet this government today, on issue after issue after issue, is misrepresenting not ancient history, not what happened in the Howard government and not what happened earlier in the term, but what happened last week! What happened four days ago!

We've learned something about the Prime Minister here. We already knew from the leadership challenge last year that if he says he supports you, you're gone. But now we find out that if he says he is opposed to something then you're in with a chance! If he says that he is passionately opposed to a bill, or to a motion or to something that he's willing to have the longest question time in history in order to avoid—any of those issues—you're in with a chance, because if he says it's something he wants to prevent, all you need to tell him is, 'Oh, you'll be defeated on the floor of the House of Representatives,' and all of a sudden he'll say: 'Oh, I've never been opposed to this. I've never had a view that was any different.'

That is what we're finding today in three votes in a row: the three votes we're having and the one they dare not have. We had the royal commission vote, the access to justice vote we're having now, the penalties vote we had not long ago, and the big stick legislation—

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