Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister argued, during the republic debate, that you cannot trust politicians. In 2010 he told Kerry O'Brien on The 7.30 Report that Australians should not take anything he says as 'gospel truth' unless it is 'carefully prepared, scripted remarks'. Thanks for the warning. Australians have certainly learned that they cannot trust this Prime Minister and they cannot believe what he says, whether scripted or unscripted. He has broken so many promises—so many times he has done the exact opposite of what he said he would do before the election—he has lowered the bar to such a degree, that it is no longer remarkable and there are no longer any consequences. 'No surprises, no excuses,' he said. Well, it is not a surprise when he lies. He does not even bother trying to make excuses anymore. He said, 'No cuts to education.' Schools have been cut by $30 billion. He said, 'No cuts to health.' Hospitals were cut by $50 billion in the first budget alone. He said, 'No change to pensions,' and they went after full-rate pensioners and then after part-rate pensioners.

But saying that the Prime Minister has broken promises is too kind. I think he deliberately lied before the election because he knew he could not do what he said he would do—no cuts, no new taxes and bring the budget back to surplus faster. Those three things simply do not go together. He knew that he could not keep the promises that he made. The cynicism of the government is beyond belief. They will say anything, they will do anything, for political gain. While Labor was this week working with the government, in a bipartisan fashion, on national security, what was the Prime Minister doing? He was dragging the cameras through ASIO headquarters, for political gain. And what else was he doing? For political gain, for a Liberal Party fundraiser, sending out messages on the back of the national security legislation that Labor is working with the government on. It is unbelievable—using ASIO as a backdrop for a photo opportunity and using national security as a cash generator for the Liberal Party of Australia.

The Prime Minister is demanding bipartisanship from Labor on national security at the same time as we find leaked question time briefs showing that the national security proposals that the government is making were nothing about national security but all about politics. But we are used to it from this Prime Minister—the Minister for Women who thinks Australian women are 'housewives doing the ironing', the Minister for Women who thinks that a woman going on maternity leave is the same as a bloke going on holidays, the Minister for Women who says, 'I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons,' the Minister for Women who says that a woman's right to say no to sex should be 'moderated' and the Minister for Women who saw nothing wrong with posing with signs calling Australia's Prime Minister a witch and a bitch. This is the so-called Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs who said that Australia was 'unsettled' before 1788. This is the man who now says marriage equality is an 'important issue', after previously saying it was the 'fashion of the moment' and also saying that he was 'a bit threatened' by homosexuality. He is the man who will not let government MPs have a free vote on marriage equality, who remains the single obstacle to the achievement of marriage equality in this nation.

But it is not just the cynicism, the sexism, the insults to Australia's values, the insults to the intelligence of Australians, the broken promises. All of these things make the Prime Minister unfit to lead this nation. But it is even worse. It is the damage that he is doing every day through the decisions that are being made. It is the half-billion dollars cut from Indigenous programs by this so-called Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs. It is the cuts to maternity leave by this so-called Minister for Women. It is the funding chaos for legal centres, which help women escaping domestic violence. It is wage growth stalling, debt doubling, taxes up, unemployment up. It is cuts to schools and hospitals that even Liberal-run states say are 'unsustainable'. It is higher prices at the chemist and the GP. It is the $100,000 university degrees. Australians deserves better than being lied to by this Prime Minister. They deserve better than his cynicism, and they certainly deserve better than the trashing of this country we have seen from this man.

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