Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It's the job of the opposition to hold the government to account; that's what this democracy is all about. There is no more important issue to keep accountable than the issue of leadership, particularly the role of the Prime Minister. Obviously the Prime Minister has control over the fates of the Australian Defence Force, for example—men and women whom we expect to spend months and years, over the course of a career, away from their families—and so it was particularly shocking when we saw the way that this disaster season has been handled in that respect.

The position of the Prime Minister is to set moral standards, to set the technical leadership that the country needs. All of us in this place are elected to challenge the bullshit artists and the ratbags out there who misguide, mislead and misinform the public, particularly in this day and age when all the forms of social media make that such a difficult challenge.

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