Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Leader of the House and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) (15:09): We just had the shadow Treasurer say there was no confidence in the Australian economy at a time when we have the biggest investment pipeline in Australia's history. What we have seen yet again— Mr Pyne: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for a motion to suspend standing orders, which is directed at asking the Prime Minister to explain herself to the House, to be answered by the— The SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. He is now warned. The Leader of the House has the call. Mr ALBANESE: We heard from those opposite a number of pleas for those on this side of the House to answer questions, but this suspension of standing orders motion is to stop question time. They are the first opposition since Federation who have come in here day after day and moved a suspension of standing orders motion at 10 minutes to three so they can get on TV before Play School. That is the dominant strategy of their tactics committee each and every day. The only reason Tony Abbott wants an election is that he knows he will not last the distance. He knows that the opposition are divided. They stand for nothing and therefore they are divided on everything. They are divided across the board. It is Minchin versus Abbott on whether the Libs should support good policy or not. It is Turnbull versus Abbott on carbon pricing. The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will refer to members by their parliamentary titles and relate his material to the suspension. Mr ALBANESE: It is the member for Fairfax and the member for Moore versus the Leader of the Opposition on plain packaging, and it is the entire Liberal Party and the Nationals on carbon farming— Mr Hockey: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, we spoke to the subject over here. The Leader of the House is seeking to talk about everything else. The SPEAKER: The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Leader of the House will debate the suspension of standing orders. Mr ALBANESE: I am indeed. The reason they want to suspend standing orders rather than have question time is that they are quite rightly embarrassed by their performance in recent times. They are divided against each other. There are letters from the shadow Treasurer today in the Financial Review—a day after he did a doorstop interview saying, 'Put aside your individual interests'—which bag the shadow finance minister and the Leader of the Opposition for their lack of economic credibility. It just does not stack up. We know that you cannot believe anything that they have to say. We know that the member for Wentworth sits there day after day reading his little iPad because there is no way he can get a question—not one question all year from the shadow minister for communications. The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the House will relate his material to the suspension. Mr Pyne: Mr Speaker, because of your rulings in past weeks with respect to speaking to the motion or to the suspension, the Leader of the Opposition did bring himself back to— The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. Mr Tehan interjecting— The SPEAKER: Does the member for Wannon want to respond to the point of order? The member for Wannon will be quiet. The Leader of the House knows his responsibility to relate his speech to the suspension, and on a couple of occasions I had to remind the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the House has the call. Mr ALBANESE: The reason we should not have this suspension of standing orders is very clear. It is just a stunt from an opposition that is incapable of even trying to hold the executive to account. That is what we do in question time each day. The opposition says that the National Broadband Network is a major issue—it is terrible!—but it cannot even get a question from the shadow minister for communications. He is not allowed to communicate with this parliament by asking a question. We know that is the case because last week the opposition went into a public implosion. Its private division became public when the Chief Opposition Whip sent out an email bagging the member for Wentworth and bagging other senior members of his own political party. At the time, the Chief Opposition Whip said that he did not show it to the Leader of the Opposition; it had nothing to do with him—almost. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the House will relate his material to the suspension. Mr ALBANESE: Apart from the fact that he came down and got a tick off and the Leader of the Opposition went over to the box and approved that email going out bagging the member for Wentworth—it was untrue, of course—it had nothing to do with him. The reason we should not support this suspension is that we as a parliament should not provide a cover for the opposition's incompetence and its failure to stand for absolutely anything. Day after day the opposition come in here and try to move a suspension so that it does not actually have to debate the substance before this parliament—so that it does not have to debate the legislation, so that it does not have to try to hold the government to account. We know today that this Leader of the Opposition is the only Liberal leader still alive who does not support a price on carbon. Everyone else is out there—the member for Wentworth, the former member for Bradfield, the former PM Malcolm Fraser and the former opposition leader John Hewson. John Howard supported a price on carbon. He went to an election supporting a price on carbon. Every one of them supports a price on carbon except for our friend here the Leader of the Opposition. Today in question time I thought, 'I want more questions from those opposite. That is why we should not have a suspension. There is some remote chance that the member for Wentworth might ask one. If not, there is some remote chance that the Leader of the National Party might ask me a question.' He has not since some time early in the last term of parliament—it has been years. If question time were not adjourned each day there might be some chance. Earlier today we did have a question from the member for Bradfield. The member for Bradfield, whose electorate had the honour of having the Prime Minister there today talking with constituents about the need to take action on climate change, said that he wants an election on carbon tax. He is having a vote on his website, and the result is that 56.6 per cent say that yes, they do support the government introducing a carbon tax. I say to the member for Bradfield that it is no wonder the Prime Minister got such a good reception. I said last week that the opposition leader had done for political discourse what the vuvuzela did for World Cup soccer. The first time you hear him, it is a bit interesting—it is loud and you cannot ignore it. To give him credit, you cannot ignore it, but over a period of time when you hear it day after day and match after match you realise that there is only one noise, and that noise is no: no, no, no, no, no. That is the only noise the Leader of the Opposition can make. After a while you find what the Australian public finds, which is that it is just annoying. They expect better. They expect some substance from the Leader of the Opposition, not this relentless negativity, which is all we get day after day. The SPEAKER: The time allotted for the debate has concluded. Question put: That the motion (Mr Abbott's) be agreed to. The House divided. [15:24] (The Speaker—Mr Jenkins) Question negatived. Ms Gillard: In the absence of the opposition wanting question time, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.