The Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor, has dished out a bit of much-needed character.
Angus Taylor quietly interjected ‘arrogant prick’ in the general direction of the Prime Minister while he was waffling through a defence of his indefensible tax policy.
Unlike some of the appalling things shouted by members of the Labor Party and the crossbench, most of which goes uncriticised, ministers were quick to feign injury.
Despite Taylor’s remark being whispered so quietly it had to be dubbed on the video replay, Tony Burke pretended he was bleeding out like the victim of a Japanese whaling trawler.
‘Speaker… There was an interjection made by the Leader of the Opposition which was way beyond unparliamentary at the start of that answer.’
To my mind, Burke should be more concerned about a second batch of ISIS brides and their children en route to Australia.
@sydneymorningherald Angus Taylor has labelled Anthony Albanese an “arrogant prick” across the despatch box during question time. The PM was answering a question about tax. In his answer, he said it “might be the last time” some Coalition MPs may have the chance to be involved in a parliamentary vote on income tax. Three Labor frontbenchers in earshot said Taylor used the term “arrogant prick”. Taylor was asked to withdraw by leader of the House Tony Burke, which Taylor then did. #australianparliament #anthonyalbanese #angustaylor #news
Besides, ‘way beyond parliamentary’ is how a lot of Australians feel about the actions of the ‘we changed our position’ Labor government.
A government that walked away from their cheap energy bill promises and straight into a manufactured ageist tax conflict that has twisted the old lefty favourite slogan ‘eat the rich’ into ‘snack on your elders’.
It’s a nasty cannibalistic economic policy that benefits the Treasury, not the kids, who are being asked to look the other way as their inheritance is taxed out of existence.
The Speaker of the House replied to Tony Burke’s meek complaint:
‘I can’t hear, because of the issues I’ve raised to this House, I can’t hear every interjection. But, if the Leader of the Opposition has made an unparliamentary remark, to assist the House, I’ll just get him to withdraw it.’
Angus Taylor naturally withdrew the remark that he’d barely whispered.
But something tells me Taylor managed to thrust another harpoon into the great red whale before the day was finished.
The Coalition has pushed for an early election to force Anthony Albanese and his Labor government to take these revolutionary tax policies to the people. See if there are any guillotines. In this situation, it’s almost as if One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson was teasing Labor by quite literally eating cake (Happy belated Birthday) with a mining giant while Labor fends off the angry peasants given pitchforks by Taylor & Co.
After all, Nationals Leader Matt Canavan spent the day calling for an election, to which the Prime Minister made an offhand remark about the Constitution.
(Let’s hope he read it more carefully than the Voice to Parliament.)
‘There is this thing called the Constitution that the Nats don’t seem to understand either. We have an election every three years and there has got to be a period closer to that before the Governor-General will agree to an election, so once against it just shows their desperation, frankly. They do not want to engage in serious policy debate.’
On the other hand, it could be said that Labor doesn’t want to engage the Australian public in a democratic choice about the new tax position.
It would be quite an achievement to have a Treasurer trying to embody Paul Keating and Prime Minister on track for a Whitlam dismissal.
In any case, Angus Taylor seemed to enjoy threatening Labor with suspending standing orders. The Liberal Leader was seeking to move a motion to thoroughly condemn the Labor government for allegedly misleading the public.
‘I move that so much of this standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately: that this House condemns the Albanese Labor government for:
1) arrogantly misleading Australians about the government’s plans for toxic taxes;
2) not having the courage to take their toxic taxes to the Australian people at an election;
3) taxing Australians more than any other Australian government in history;
4) for betraying the hardest working Australians who are willing to take risks and who have made the biggest sacrifices and;
5) hurting Australians without any understanding of who will be punished and to what extent Australians will be worse off.’
Labor offered a few choice interjections over that speech from Angus Taylor, but the Coalition were too polite to pull them up.
I won’t bore you with Burke’s ‘lesson’ on parliamentary process that followed except to say it is a shame he doesn’t apply the same strict process to governance. But that’s how it works with bureaucracy. The nitpicking is often more important than the consequences of destructive tax policy.
Cue the laughter of the Labor Party. It’s all theatre to them.
