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

It gives me great pleasure to speak on today's matter of public importance. Every week—in fact, every question time—brings more chaos and dysfunction from this distracted and chaotic government. Today was a really good example. We had the hapless immigration minister acknowledging that he has lost hardened criminals on the streets after previously inviting them to be case-managed by his department; the hopeless home affairs minister, sent up day after day to try and back him in; and the obfuscating Prime Minister, who just doesn't have the courage to give a straight answer to the question, 'Why did you not defend our Australian sailors from an attack by the Chinese navy by demonstrating that you back them in when you had a chance with the Chinese President?' They are obfuscating every single day. It's minister after minister. I can't even begin on the environment and water minister, or I don't know what will happen for the rest of this MPI. But she has single-handedly traded off the lives and livelihoods of the farmers and food and fibre producers in the Murray-Darling Basin without ever having the courage to look them in the eye and tell them what she really has in store for them.

I want to quote from the front page of the Australian the day after the Prime Minister launched his election campaign just over 18 months ago. It's important that we go back there. The headline makes it clear what his core promises about his potential government were all about. The headline was 'Life will be "cheaper" under me'.

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