Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

What an incompetent government! House duty is not that complicated. You sit in a chair and, when you're not here, you admit you weren't here. This is a minister who couldn't even admit he wasn't here. He couldn't even admit it. He couldn't even have the decency and the honour to say: 'Sorry, I got it wrong. I forgot to sit in the chair. That was such a complicated task I had at hand, I didn't know what to do.' That says it all about this government. One-job Michael over here is one of the economic team. No wonder the economic plan of the government is failing! One of the government's economic team—one of the so-called brains trust—can't even get House duty right! That's what we see more and more: the fact that this government is incompetent at every level. No wonder Pauline Hanson's running the show!

As I was saying before I was interrupted by the absence of a government minister, I confess I was surprised when the government allegedly got a deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation party to pass the big business tax cuts for the price of a small apprenticeship program. It turns out I should have been surprised, because it wasn't the case. They had billions of dollars worth of deals; they just won't tell us what they are. (Time expired)

See this speech in context