Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, Senator Brandis, it's always good to be in the chamber with you. All I can say is that I really hope that Senator Canavan and Mr Joyce have both made sure they have better counsel who can make better arguments before the High Court than the arguments that Senator Brandis has put forward today. I would be happy to put around the can and take up a bit of a collection to make sure they can get themselves better lawyers and better counsel than Senator Brandis, should he be intending to appear for them.

And today we've had it go even further. I thought that Julie Bishop, the foreign minister, was having a bad day today already, but her day got a lot worse when she turned to her robust ally Senator Brandis to defend her position. You know as a minister you are in deep, deep, deep trouble when it's Senator Brandis who has to come out here and defend your position, and that's what we saw from Senator Brandis today. I'm waiting for Senator Brandis to declare war on New Zealand. This ridiculous rhetoric that is coming out of his mouth, and every other minister's mouth, should stop immediately.