Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

and is continuing to do so about this issue, but what does he actually do? We are months away from an election but what do we know about the policy of the Liberals on government advertising? The answer is: not much. But we do know from the contribution of coalition senators to the report on Senator Brown’s bill that they agree with the conclusions of Dr Hawke and the government that the Auditor-General is inappropriate to be both decision maker and reviewer. This is one of the only identified rational decisions that Senator Ronaldson seems to have been able to come to, that I have seen. So why must the Senate be subject to the hypocrisy of this display of confected outrage, the howls of derision, the thumping of tables, all the while supporting the decision we took? He cannot walk both sides of the street on this matter, but he is clearly attempting to do so—and failing badly.

Senator Ronaldson wants to be in the alternate government. Senator Ronaldson wants to be a cabinet secretary and a special minister of state, yet carries on with this farce. Senator Ronaldson, a challenge to you—