Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

more economically credible than the Labor Party, but they have. They have become more economically credible than the Labor Party. All Bill Shorten, Leader of the Opposition, has now is another distraction from the real issues of the day: jobs and growth. His own side knows it. His own side knows there is a hole in the heart of the Leader of the Opposition's case, because his case all week has been that the member for Wentworth should sack the Minister for Human Services.

On the other hand, the member for Isaacs has spent the week demanding that the Minister for Human Services be investigated by the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and that the Minister for Human Services cooperate with that investigation. Both of those things cannot be true. They cannot both work. Either he should be investigated, there should be due process and the Prime Minister should receive a report to which he should respond, or apparently—in the world of the Leader of the Opposition—there should be a knee-jerk reaction to these stories and a minister should be instantaneously sacked.

There is no consistency in the Leader of the Opposition's approach. It is because the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition have not done the serious policy work needed to present as an alternative government at the coming election this year. They believed for months that they would be able to coast into government on the back of a GST, with a not-very-scary scare campaign. Yet again, they did nothing to do the policy work necessary to prepare for government and give the Australian public the confidence to support them. They did none of those things.

Yet again, they have been found wanting. There will not be a goods and services tax increase. Their not-very-scary scare campaign has fallen flat. Yet they have spent six months wasting their time supporting the Leader of the Opposition on a campaign against a tax that the government was never committed to and the government never mentioned. We tried to help them time and time again. Whether it was the member for Warringah, the member for Wentworth or the Treasurer, we said over and over again that there was no policy to introduce a goods and services tax increase but we were happy to have a national conversation. Labor spent six months wasting time talking about a tax increase that is not going to be introduced. As a consequence, we have this distraction today, we have had this distraction this week. We have had the same distractions with the member for Fisher. Labor is going backwards in the polls and the public does not support them.

The standing orders should not be suspended. The government will not be stopping our program for another political stunt.

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