Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Leader of the House and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) (15:17): Who said this? The world view of this ugly conservatism is distinguished by complete absence of optimism, total lack of generosity of spirit and denial that politics all involves ... give as well as take. … … … The triumph of fear over hope is palpable. That was the Leader of the Opposition in an article in 1998 about the One Nation Party. In that article he opposed the politics of fear over the politics of hope, and he opposed the politics of fear over the politics of fact. Since then we have seen an opposition leader desperate because of his loss. We know that from his own words. The same person who wants to claw back the payments to families, who wants to claw back the education funding, who wants to claw back the assistance to pensioners, veterans, students and the elderly had this to say about losing power: We all need grief counselling … It's like a bereavement. Not as bad as losing a child or a spouse but up there with losing a parent. It's very hard. That is what the Leader of the Opposition had to say about going into opposition. No wonder we say that the quote from Johnson about Goldwater fits: 'In your guts you know he's nuts.' No wonder we say this. Ms Julie Bishop: Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order on relevance. Mr Albanese, you can sit down. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): The Leader of the House will resume his seat. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has the call and will be held in silence. Ms Julie Bishop: I was making the point that in his words to date the member has not yet addressed the motion. Given that this is a matter where standing orders should be suspended to debate the motion, I ask him to come back to the motion. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I ask the Leader of the House to address the motion before the chair. Mr ALBANESE: Here we see personified why we should not be suspending standing orders: this is all about their dummy spit. This is all about those opposite and their failure to acknowledge the fact that they lost the election in 2010. That is why they have come in here and moved suspensions of standing orders on 61 separate occasions. They say it is very effective but they run away from it just like they ran away from the parliament. This Leader of the Opposition is the only member of parliament to ever try to run out of parliament when a division was called. Everyone else tries to get in; he tried to get out, but he was beaten by the gazelle over here. Mr Pyne interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Sturt is not being relevant. Mr ALBANESE: We should not suspend standing orders because we should not give in to the indulgence of those opposite. It is not our fault that they do not sit on this side of the chamber. It is not our fault that every day they move a suspension of standing orders for the sole purpose that, during the division, they can sit on the government benches for just a few minutes. That is the only possible explanation. What we see from those opposite is that they are not conservatives; they are wreckers; they are extremists; they are reactionaries; and they are desperate as it comes to July 1. As it comes to July 1 those opposite know that all of their fear campaigns that Whyalla will disappear off the map, and all the other fears—and we heard it again in the suspension motion. The Leader of the Opposition said today: 'We will see the death of the coal industry'—at a time when we know there is half a trillion dollars of investment in the resources sector pipeline. We should not suspend standing orders because I predict I might have got the next question. If I did, I might have been asked about the Regional Infrastructure Fund and what people have to say about that. Those on this side of the House have supported the minerals resource rent tax because we support the support for superannuation and the support for regional infrastructure. This is what the Leader of the National Party had to say a year ago: I share the disappointment about how few mining companies contribute to the areas they invade and how little state governments return of the massive royalty incomes they receive to the communities. That is what he had to say. I thought that might have been an aberration—it might have just been a mistake—because the Nats do make mistakes, but just this month in the Mudgee Guardian he said that mining companies: … could not expect to take away a region’s resources without leaving something for the community. That is what he had to say, and then he went on to say: … mines had a responsibility to contribute to the specific infrastructure provided to meet their needs. When they are out there in their communities, they say, 'We want regional infrastructure; we need regional infrastructure; we should do something about it.' It is just like when they go around and say they have the exactly same target that we do on climate change; the difference is this: we are using a market to get there by introducing an emissions trading system with a fixed price. Those opposite want to get there the same way, but not only are they climate sceptics; they are market sceptics as well. They want to do it through the old Soviet command style economy of this Leader of the Opposition. The fact is that they say no to everything in this parliament, except yes to Work Choices, yes to clawing back tax cuts and pension rises, yes to ripping the NBN out of the ground, yes to taking billions away from public hospitals and yes to slashing the education budget. But we know they want to avoid discussion. We know that the Leader of the Opposition has been missing a bit on the last couple of weekends—he has been doing no doorstops. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the House will return to the issue before the chair. Mr ALBANESE: If we did not have a motion to suspend standing orders before us, we might ask why it is that they run away from the parliament and from debate. We know that there is a real concern from those opposite when it comes to accountability. It is probably why they have just suspended standing orders to avoid question time. They do not like questions. They will not answer any questions about what their involvement was in the James Ashby affair—not the member for Sturt; he runs from that. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will return to the motion before the chair. Mr ALBANESE: The Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer all run away from accountability. So we would certainly welcome a debate on a whole range of issues, but not a debate on their self-indulgence—a debate that says, 'I'm so great. I'm so fantastic. How dare the Australian people not vote for me as Prime Minister!' That is essentially what we are putting up with here: the longest dummy-spit in Australian political history from this bloke opposite, who just puts his ego before everything. He goes to conferences and says things like this: 'I'll be the next Prime Minister of Australia.' He says that when he goes to state conferences. He runs down the Australian economy and runs down the performance of this government, except when he is held to account when he is overseas. There, he says: … Australia has serious bragging rights. Compared to most developed countries, our economic circumstances are enviable. That is exactly what the shadow Treasurer said as well. Mr Pyne: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am wondering if the Leader of the House would entertain a suspension of standing orders to extend the time to allow the member for Griffith to comment on the second anniversary of— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Leader of the House has the call. Mr ALBANESE: Once again, they abuse. They get two goes and we get one, but they insist on interrupting. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will refer to the motion before the chair. Mr ALBANESE: We think it is a fair deal: one of us versus two of them. I conclude my comments on this, the great words of Robert Menzies: … on far too many questions we have found our role to be simply that of the man who says "No." … … … There is no room in Australia for a party of reaction. There is no useful place for a policy of negation. That is why increasingly, from Sunday, 1 July— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): The time for the debate has expired. The question is that the motion be agreed to. Ms Gillard: I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.