Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move that this House has no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Maribyrnong from moving the following motion forthwith:

That this House has no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Seventeen months ago the Prime Minister promised Australian voters a stable, mature and adult government. What has happened? There have been many promises broken by this government, but the promise to run a stable and mature government is arguably the biggest broken promise of this sad government's last 17 months.

The Australian people, unlike those in the parallel universe the government inhabits, have watched with amazement in the last few weeks and days as the once-great Liberal Party huffs and puffs its way up to a leadership spill. Australians know this government is not working for them. I say to the Liberal backbenchers of this government and to the Liberal frontbenchers: it does not matter who you choose. The problem is not the salesperson; the problem is what you are selling to people.

As for the member for Wentworth, who we just heard from: never has a member wanted so much yet would do so little to get the position! He, the Zorro of the dispatch box, has said that he wants the job but he will not fight for the job. He is prepared to injure his Prime Minister but he leaves his supporters hanging. He is a veritable ball of ambivalence!

But this is not new in his political career. For two long, excruciating decades we were with the Hamlet of the Liberal Party—to be Labor or to be Liberal, that is the question! Oh yes, we like your look. But in the end, John Howard had a better chance of beating Kim Beazley, so lucky Liberal Party! The ball of ambivalence chose the Liberals. And then what did he do when he came to parliament? He stalked poor old Brendan Nelson. What did Brendan Nelson ever do to deserve Malcolm Turnbull stalking him?

But, of course, the member for Wentworth was angsting on the spill motion over the weekend. He was able to be conned by Godwin Grech—and we will never forget that! Then he could not even come to terms with Nick Minchin. And there, the man who would be if he could be, got beaten by Tony Abbott! Not once, not twice but time and time again.

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