Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, can I first congratulate you on your appointment today. A statement that we often hear is: ‘Actions speak louder than words.’ We have had a lot of discussion and debate over the last couple of hours. What are the words that we have heard from the new government? We have heard phrases like ‘the buck stops here’, ‘parliamentary democracy’ and ‘we will listen to the people’—the thousand people that they will listen to. But we have around 100,000 people in each of our electorates. Hopefully, as we do mail-outs, those people will have the opportunity to respond to us on weekends and on Fridays. When we are in our electorates it is an opportunity for us to listen. But do the government want to listen? Another word they use is ‘transparency’. But what I see in what the government are proposing today is the exact opposite: a lack of willingness to listen to the people, a lack of commitment to parliamentary democracy and a system where on a Friday there will be no ministers—and where will the Prime Minister be?—to listen to what the people have to say, through us speaking on their behalf.

Let us look at the cost to the taxpayers. We are here to serve them—is that right? I am sure that many of my colleagues would agree. The cost will be $1 million. I could give the government a list of roads in my electorate alone that need repairing because people are dying on them. One million dollars could fix some roads in one electorate. But spending $1 million to sit every Friday for the rest of the year is taking money away from, and not providing services for or responding to the needs of, the people that we are here to work for.

Let us look at the work ethic. We have all said that we work fairly hard. But there are people in our electorates who are working extremely hard as well. It appears to me that there are two different sets of standards—one for the opposition and one for the government. We are more than willing to work for five days. We have heard what the member for Leichhardt has said; I do not need to reiterate it. He is going to have a day off on Friday. The question is: will the Prime Minister have the day off on Friday? While we are working, who on the government benches will be working? They will have shot through; they will have gone.

I will finish with something that stood out when the member for Berowra was talking tonight. He talked about the possible legal implications. He referred to privilege. What is clear to me—and, I am sure, to my colleagues on this side—is that the government have demonstrated a complete lack of forethought, a complete lack of capacity to think things through. Instead they are making decisions quickly without any thought about the possible consequences. What will the government do with other decisions? That is a question we need to ask.

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