Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you most sincerely, Senator Macdonald; that is very gracious of you. I was enjoying your contribution. In your former role you were well recognised as a fantastic minister. It is an absolute joke that the only way Senator Bob Brown is dragged into a matter that he has an interest in is when someone like Senator Kemp alerts him to the fact that he is not down here. Of course, he scuttled back quickly. I remember vividly the Telstra bill, and the Greens were opposed to it. Who was out the front, on his mobile phone, and did not have the intestinal fortitude to come into the hearing? The great joke about today, as Senator Kemp has alluded to, has been the Australian Labor Party, whose only policy—as Senator Milne indicated—is a summit. After 11 years, the best thing they can do is to have a summit. They have no policies. The Australian Greens have no answers. This government has got $2 billion on the table and it is meeting its Kyoto commitments—and that is acknowledged. (Time expired)

Debate interrupted.