The prime minister has survived a leadership vote in the party room, but with a large minority voting for a spill. All the developments from Canberra, live
Ok, here comes the hour of glower.
Shorten lobs the question that Abbott once lobbed to Julia Gillard that we flagged earlier on Politics Live. Given the backbench belting, where is your mandate Tony?
It’s the election, stupid.
Abbott:
I can understand why the leader of the opposition doesn’t want to remember the election. It would be something he would rather forget, but this prime minister and this government did win an election – and that is the mandate that we are carrying out.
The prime minister is now wading into Colleen McCullough. “Though plain of feature.” No, quite the opposite. Abbott as a teenager loved The Thorn Birds. A page-turner. I think Christopher Pyne might have just supressed the hiccups.
That quip from Abbott was not at all churlish in context – conscious it might read that way in just one excerpt. Just saying.
Now the chamber is honouring Kep Enderby – former Labor politician, attorney general and judge.
Abbott again:
When Gough Whitlam, the prime minister, called [Enderby] to say he would be moved to a new portfolio as part of a reshuffle the next day, knowing he had only hours left in his treasured portfolio apparently the minister and his staff worked through the night, renaming 50 Canberra street names after left-wing poets, philosophers, revolutionary leaders from around the world.
Luckily his time in the parliament was short.
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek.
Looking back later in his life, [Uren] said his great regret was not that those – when those who were weaker than him needed his protection and strength; his great regret was he felt pride at that opportunity rather than humility.
Tom Uren was a father figure to Labor’s Anthony Albanese. Naturally, Albanese has an emotional tribute.
Like so many other young men and women of that time, [Uren] enlisted, went to Timor, was captured. He served in Timor, Singapore, the Burma railway and Japan as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. Those people who read Richard Flanagan’s extraordinary book would read it as I did and I just wonder how these men came through that process without being bitter about the world and their place in it.
He was an extraordinary man. If he can be characterised by anything, it is his faith in humanity and in his fellow man. He came through that process with a love and used to speak about ... unusually for a man ... speak about his love for people – and it was genuine.
He received love in spades in return.
He was someone who, in the noise of politics and conflict and petty squabbles that go on, he soared above the political landscape in this building and out there in the community.
Labor leader Bill Shorten on Tom Uren:
Tom was the keeper of Labor’s conscience in often trying times. He was a moral centre. Tom was a fearless foe and a loyal friend.
For me, the last words belonged to Tom Uren, from the final page of his memoir Straight Left: “In my years of living, giving and serving our human family is the most rewarding achievement. When you walk down the street, the beauty of peoples’ eyes and faces gives you so many rewards.”
Our condolences to his friends, family and his loved ones. May he rest in peace.
Rightio – let’s press onwards. The house is eulogising two departed Labor figures, Eric Fitzgibbon and Tom Uren.
Abbott on Uren, (and I suspect, a little on himself):
Tom Uren rejected hatred because, he said, hatred scars the soul.
I first met Tom Uren at a Palm Sunday peace march in the mid-1980s. Once as a minister he was addressing an audience at Sydney University. He intervened to break up a fight between two students and the former boxer said “the only thing I fight for now is peace”.
Tom Uren once reflected “I am a much gentler man than most people believe. There are two sides to me. I have got a gentle side and a harder side and as I have got older, I have got much gentler.
This was his way of saying that he cared and felt for people but, nevertheless, he did always fight for principle. He was a warrior in this house but, above all else, in war and in peace, he was a warrior for a better Australia.
Socialise the losses.
Wonderful picture from Mike Bowers of a political leader having a very bad day at the office.
They are the main points. Abbott wrapped that encounter after 14 minutes.
The prime minister has had a big fright. A lot of rhetorical crow being eaten there. But the test is whether or not anything changes.
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