Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2018, which, if successful, would see the Family Court of Australia, essentially, abolished. This bill comes without any real consultation, a pattern that we have become used to seeing from this coalition government, a coalition government that decides policy on the spur of the moment, that doesn't consult properly and that doesn't think issues through. This is a government that, each and every day, searches for something that it can dismantle or destroy. That's because it is a government with no ideas. It is a government that is frightened of the present but terrified of the future, a government that is liberal in name only. It is a government that is certainly not even conservative, because conservatives support institutions in our society. This is a government that undermines institutions, that is prepared to rip up decades of what have come to be seen as normal processes in which people have rights as well as obligations. The problem is the reactionary ideology of those opposite coupled with a lack of preparedness for government. When the member for Warringah, Mr Abbott, took office in 2013 he did have a plan to get rid of Labor. He certainly didn't have a plan to govern. He defined himself by what he was against, not what he was for. Likewise, Malcolm Turnbull had a plan to get rid of Mr Abbott as the Prime Minister.

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