Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You will notice that he has not even stopped as he is walking out of the chamber. He is still doing his little comedy special. It demonstrates to everybody in this place and everybody who was listening—and I hope they were watching—why he should not be taken seriously in this place, and he represents the coalition! He is a senior member of their team and he comes in here and makes such a childish and pathetic contribution. There was no serious debate. Mr Deputy President, you might have cut him some slack if he came in here and said, ‘Look, it’s the second last day of sittings. It has been a long and hard year. Everyone is tired. I’m just going to make a five-minute contribution which is a bit of a joke.’ We could have sat back and had a bit of a laugh. But he did not do that; he actually attempted to put himself forward as a serious contributor to the policy debate in this country, and he has simply failed, as he has failed every other time. He has been sacked several times. He is a joke. His own party could not even tolerate him when he was the finance spokesman.