Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It used to be the job of my predecessor as the member for Jagajaga to come into this chamber after numerous leadership spills on the other side and ask: who is the Prime Minister? It's my job today after the Nationals leadership spill to say that we know who the new Deputy Prime Minister is. He is a man whose own female colleague this morning warned that the women of Australia would not be happy if he became leader again. He is a man who last stepped down from a leadership role after a sexual harassment allegation was made against him. He is a man who raised concerns about the provision of Gardasil, a vaccine for HPV, because of a view that it might make young women promiscuous.

We were told earlier this year that we had a Prime Minister for women now. We were told that those on the other side got it—that they understood that Australian women felt that they weren't being heard or seen in this place. Actions speak louder than words, and today's actions are very loud indeed. The Morrison-Joyce government does not take Australian women and their concerns seriously. In the middle of a pandemic, instead of spending their time fixing their shambles of a vaccine rollout, they spent it on a leadership spill. We deserve so much better than this. We deserve a government that genuinely listens to and respects Australian women. We deserve a government with a plan to get us out of this crisis and to get us vaccinated.

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