Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. They have left the chamber. They are not here. They can't face the music. When you stuff up, you still get marks for showing up, and they will not show up. This is a dishonest prime minister who deceives the Australian people day in, day out. The Prime Minister is breaking promises he made hundreds of times before the election and ramming policies through this parliament that he didn't even mention once.

Let's go through those promises: a $275 cut to power bills, promise broken; cheaper mortgages, promise broken; lower inflation, promise broken; a plan to bring down the cost of living, promise broken; no changes to super, promise broken; franking credits won't be touched, promise broken. This is a prime minister who could not name the cash rate in April but thought he could promise Australians cheaper mortgages in May. This is a prime minister who promised to bring down your power bills 97 times before the election but has been allergic to the number 275 ever since. Deceitful, deceptive, dishonest—this is a prime minister who is allergic to the truth. He is slippery, he is sneaky, he dodges and weaves his way through the commitments he made to the Australian people and he refuses to be straight with them about the broken promises that he cannot deliver.

This is not the leadership the Prime Minister promised. He said he would leave no-one behind, but he is leaving everyone behind: small businesses, left behind; workers, left behind; mortgage holders, left behind; renters, left behind; retirees, left behind; any single Australian who has been to the supermarket this week, left behind.

In the Liberal and National parties, we're here for the small businesses of this great country, we're here for the workers across Australia, we're here for the renters in our capital cities, we're here for the retirees who just want the money they have saved over decades to be left alone, we're here for the Australians who are hurting badly when they go to the shops and when they fill up their cars.

This is a prime minister who spends his Sundays campaigning for state Labor instead of campaigning for the Australian people. Day in, day out all this Prime Minister can offer is arrogance. He is utterly incapable of delivering on the promises he made. Yesterday, while the Prime Minister was cracking lame jokes at the New South Wales Labor launch, I visited his electorate of Grayndler. I saw a great second-generation family business, Paesanella cheese—a household name. They produce ricotta, bocconcini and mozzarella. Like many small business owners, Joe's success was based on a passion for making high-quality products. Joe's father arrived as a migrant to this country and brought with him this passion for making cheese, which endures to this day. Joe doesn't need lame jokes about trains and ferries; he needs action from this Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is fond of using the expression, 'I'll give you the big tip.' Well, Prime Minster, I will give you the big tip—if you were here, where you should be. Stop being a partisan political warrior and start delivering on the promises you made to the Australian people. This is a Prime Minister and a Labor government that are completely detached from reality.

Over the weekend, we heard the member for Sydney and her inspiring daughter bravely articulate their stories. As a woman and a mother, I was incredibly touched by the member for Sydney's story, and I particularly want to praise her daughter. This is a reminder that politicians are humans, too. We're normal people with normal problems. I think the women across Australia would be pretty disappointed that Labor MPs so brutally backgrounded against the member for Sydney's leadership aspirations when she and her family were going through such tough times. When the Prime Minister was asked to reflect on this inspiring story, what was his response? 'I was elected leader unopposed.' There was not an ounce of empathy for his colleague, not a single comment in support of her and her daughter. And what about his foot soldiers on the back bench? One MP said, anonymously, 'I don't understand why she would come out with this today, when we know it's wrong.' How tone deaf. How outrageous. I'll give the Prime Minister another hot tip: this wasn't about whether he was elected unopposed or not; this was about the member for Sydney and her daughter sharing an incredibly brave story. Shame on this Prime Minister.

There's no doubt in the member Sydney's mind that she would've won the Labor leadership in 2019, and looking at the first nine months under this Prime Minister there's probably not that much doubt on anyone else's mind either. This is a shambles of a government. The Treasurer is at war with the Prime Minister over taxing the family home. The stunned mullet of a Deputy Prime Minister is unable to explain Labor's new tax on super— (Time expired)

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