Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make a contribution this afternoon. From what I can see and what the public is hearing in relation to higher education, there is nothing that is fundamentally more wrong for the nation and for students than this piece of legislation. This whole debate has gone one step further, because the federal member for Bass, in Tasmania, has yet again come out swinging in relation to this particular bill. What he is now doing—and we know this because I have spoken about it before—is attacking a professor at the University of Tasmania for daring to question the government's agenda. But he has gone one step further. He is now engaged with none other than a veteran of journalism, Paul Bongiorno, today questioning his right to comment with Mr Nikolic.