Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's astounding, isn't it? The topic of the debate is 'the failure of the government to focus on the needs of Australians' and the previous speaker, obsessed with politics, spent 3½ minutes speaking about the Labor Party. I would note, Deputy Speaker, that it is the first time I have risen while you have been in the chair. I voted for you, as the nation saw when I held up my ballot paper.

The talk over the summer, before we came back here for this fortnight, was about bushfires. The sky turned red, our cities were shrouded in smoke and Australians got scared about the future—as if this were a portent—and angry about the lack of leadership from the Prime Minister. Just at the very moment that the nation needed leadership, the Prime Minister and the government failed the Australian people. There has been a lot of focus in the media and the community on the Prime Minister's holiday in Hawaii. I actually don't care about that. Let the bloke have a holiday with his kids. What I do care about is the fact that he lied to the media, snuck out of the country and refused to tell anyone who was in charge.

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