Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very disappointed to interrupt the member for Batman's audition for a re-entry to the frontbench. I am not sure how well it went, but good luck, member for Batman.

What an extraordinary MPI we have seen here today. I thought all my Christmases had come at once when I saw 'Dysfunction in the government'. I thought, 'Dysfunction. Hold on, I'm from Victoria. Has anyone seen Senator Marshall's comments this week, speaking of dysfunction?' I think we should go through it. I so wish the member for Scullin were here, but I suspect the member for Scullin is somewhere stacking branches or maybe preparing for a membership drive, given that we have a few issues in the Victorian division of the Labor Party. At a meeting earlier this week, we are told—it is reported, and this is what Senator Marshall has reported—there was a lot of unhappiness with the member for Scullin. In the words of Senator Marshall on the record—these are not comments in the background; these are on-the-record comments—the member for Scullin 'was a very bad fit for Scullin as the member and there is a mood for change in the branch. I've been talking to lots of people in Scullin.' There you have it: Senator Marshall openly saying in the media that he is stacking the branches against the member for Scullin.

I happen to quite like the member for Scullin, but a dirt sheet that went out on the member for Scullin did strike a chord with me. A dirt sheet that I suspect Senator Marshall put around to his 950 branch members did strike a chord. This dirt sheet said as follows, and this is a branch member in Scullin commenting on the member for Scullin:

When my mates' jobs are going overseas and I can't get full time hours after being laid off ... I don't want to hear he—

the member for Scullin—

cried in Parliament about gay marriage—I want him to cry and fight for us, our jobs and our ability to put food on the table ...

I suspect Senator Marshall is in Scullin just needling, just working the branches. Again, I like the member for Scullin, but I really do enjoy seeing Senator Marshall stirring it up. We are seeing open warfare in the Labor Party.

I feel very sorry for the Leader of the Opposition because he is essentially a right-wing member of the Labor Party trying to keep an extreme left-wing rump of his party under control. Now we have the Victorian Left, which has broken away from the national Left to the point where Albo—the member for Grayndler, sorry—has no idea who Kimberley Kitching is. Everybody in the trade union royal commission knows who Kimberley Kitching is, and I can tell members opposite that there will be a lot coming. I cannot wait for Ms Kitching to arrive here in parliament. We are going to have a lot of fun with that. If members of the Left had any guts whatsoever, they would put a stop to it. Where is the great Left of the Labor Party to stop this absolutely disgraceful captain's pick? This is somebody who the trade union royal commission decided deserves charges to be placed against her.

Talking about dysfunction, what other dysfunction is there? We have more dysfunction between the Left and the Right of the Labor Party: Senator Wong slapping down the shadow minister for defence with his outrageous comments in relation to the South China Sea. Senator Wong confirmed on a number of occasions, apparently, that Labor's policy is no different to ours in relation to the South China Sea. So why hasn't the Leader of the Opposition slapped down the member for Corio, as he should, for that disgraceful and lazy comment that he made? Apparently this parliament has no say over what our ADF do—the ADF personnel decide that. I am with Senator Wong on this—it is one of the very few issues that I would be with Senator Wong on—in slapping down the shadow minister for defence. But where is the Leader of the Opposition in this? The Leader of the Opposition cannot even assert a basic fact like that for fear of going against his factional ally in Victoria, because his party is crumbling underneath him. It is only a matter of time when Senator Marshall against the member for Scullin expands throughout the party, and I look forward to witnessing that.

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