Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have been sitting here for about the last half an hour really keen and eager to hear about the achievements of this government in the last year. When given an opportunity to speak for 10 minutes on their achievements the member for Bradfield spent 6½ minutes talking about the Labor Party. I find it quite astounding that when he was given an opportunity to speak for 10 minutes about their own achievements all he could muster up was 3½ minutes to talk about them. I find that really quite astounding.

I have to agree with my colleagues here. The year that has passed, which started for some of us—some people in Australia and certainly some people in my electorate—with so much promise, with so many promises of a different kind of government, has delivered nothing—nothing but disappointment. So many have asked: where is the Prime Minister? Where is the Prime Minister they hoped for? Where is the strong moral leadership that many Australians so eagerly crave? On issue after issue, this Prime Minister has dithered and danced to the beat of his extreme right-wing friends. It reminds me of a saying that we have in Arabic that the man might be the head of the house but the woman is the neck that moves the head. It certainly is the case here, where the Prime Minister might be the head of his party but the neck that moves that head is certainly within the right-wing of that party.

An opposition member: It's certainly not a woman either.

And it is not a woman! Nowhere is this more evident than in the less than impressive report card given to the Prime Minister by those within his own ranks, who one would expect would be spruiking the achievements of this government—indeed, if there were any. So let us just do a little bit of a stocktake here. Let us see: in this first year, as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull has got a rather unenviable list of achievements, the first, of course, being the setting up of a Medicare privatisation task force. What about cutting $650 million from bulk-billing incentives for pathology services? There is an achievement you all can be proud of. What about giving big business a $50 billion tax cut, of which $7.4 billion will go to the big four banks? There is a big achievement. But, wait a minute, if you go into Cowan and talk to the people that I represent, what about the NBN? Now, there is an achievement you all can be proud of.

The Prime Minister calls himself a feminist but he has five fewer female members in the House than his predecessor. Now, there is an achievement. He has crowed on about how he has a very solid working majority. What happened last week? What did we see last week? It was such an achievement. A majority government lost a House of Representatives vote for the first time since 1962. What an achievement. And his much-touted 25 pieces of 'new legislation' were not actually new at all—one had been on the Notice Paper for over 1,000 days. Let me make mention as well of the issue of border security. One of the previous speakers talked about the last 800 days. Last I counted, a year has only 365 days. Am I right?

Opposition members: Yes.

Let us not forget that Mr Turnbull has suggested that the solution to the housing affordability crisis is that wealthy parents should shell out for their kids to help them buy a house. Now, there is an achievement. I guess it is all part of the PM's latest slogan—so far, so good. And is it any wonder that everyone agrees with the member for Warringah, Mr Tony Abbott, when he says the reality is that this government has been in office but not in power? So far, so good.

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