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

It is a great thing for me that I've had the opportunity to speak today. I had hoped to speak earlier today during the motion that was moved by the Minister for the Environment and Energy but, sadly and kind of bizarrely, the government gagged its own urgency motion that was supposed to be criticising Labor. It was all going so well that they actually had to cut the debate short! If the Minister for the Environment and Energy had been in here, I would've advised him to rethink those great ideas he had after his third Tia Maria and milk after dinner, because what seems like a great idea at 11 o'clock at night after a few Tia Marias doesn't always bear examination first thing in the morning.

I'm glad I have the opportunity to speak now, having been thrown out a little earlier, because I really do want to talk about the broken promises and failures of the Turnbull government. I have a little confession to make: even I thought things would get better with the member for Wentworth in charge. You look at member for Warringah, the Neanderthal policies, the name-calling, the boorish negativity and you think, 'Oh God; anything has to be better than this, right?' We all thought that. We thought of 'leather jacket, ABC-loving, Q&A Malcolm', who was a supporter of climate change, marriage equality and who was doing something on the republic. We thought, 'This guy has to be better than the member for Warringah.' Oh my goodness, haven't we been disappointed! Because every single one the reasons that people thought the member for Wentworth would have to be better than the member for Warringah, he's given up on, walked away from, left behind and discarded—every single one. In 2012 he said:

I am always careful that the political positions I take are consistent with good policy. I would not want to be prime minister of Australia at any price—

No, not at any price, but we know the price: it was $1.7 million. He was very critical of the three-word-slogans of the member for Warringah. He's certainly had a productivity improvement; he has two-word slogans. He's 33 per cent more effective than the member for Warringah. He's gone from three-word slogans to 'jobs and growth', 'engineering and economics' and, my personal favourite, 'continuity and change'. That went so well!

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