Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go. The Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens is saying, ‘Jealousy is a curse.’ I suppose I should be jealous for not having missed a division like the Leader of the Australian Greens. Really, this is the Australian Greens mentality writ large. If anybody else makes a mistake, it is to be condemned; if the Australian Greens do—the untouchable Australian Greens—it is to be seen as a virtue. When we point it out to them, it is only because we are jealous we did not make the same mistake. This is how small-minded the Australian Greens are and this is the sort of intellectual robustness that they bring, unfortunately, to serious policy debates in this chamber as well.

Can I say—and I said it at the time, and other coalition senators said it at the time—when you try to make cheap political capital out of somebody else’s misfortune, be careful the same misfortune does not befall you. Today that same misfortune has befallen Senator Brown, and I invite Senator Brown—and all those in the media, by the way, who put Senator Brown on the evening news saying what a rabble the coalition was—