Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

That is very correct, Deputy Speaker, because the entire nation should know that this Leader of the Opposition didn't visit Collie when he spent five days in Western Australia, maybe because he thought he had to go up to Collie when in fact it's down, south of Perth. He would know that if he had driven there. But I agree that it is important that every Australian know that and it's important that we discuss that in this parliament.

If any mining executive in Western Australia did what the Leader of the Opposition has done, which is to put out a completely uncosted, un-fact-checked plan around nuclear energy, they would be sacked by the end of the day. You couldn't hold that standard to the ASX. But what we have here with the Leader of the Opposition is that now, two months on, we have seen no costings, no economic modelling, no job projections, nothing on the cost of electricity, and no plan on how to fund it. Is it going to be debt funded, is it going to be funded by jacking up people's power bills, are you going to jack up taxes or are you going to make cuts? Again, we don't know how they're going to fund their signature—in fact, their only—policy. It's reasonable that people would ask those questions, and it's reasonable that people would expect that, if this Leader of the Opposition puts himself forward as an alternative leader of Australia, he would have some of those plans.

Opposition members interjecting—

We see—and I hear it now—lots of anger coming from those opposite. They have no costed policies. We have lots of campaigning in Western Australia, but there was no time to get to Collie. There are lots of complaints about this government, but they will never vote for action on anything, including HECS. We even struggled on getting them to agree to clean up the CFMEU today. They are an endlessly petty opposition who spend more time on the side of John Setka than on the side of the Australian people. We see endless negativity—all problems, no solutions. The Leader of the Opposition couldn't even bring himself, when he was there welcoming our Olympians back, to have an entire hour where we could just share in the joy of some of our outstanding Olympians. He had to politicise it. He chose that moment—a deliberate choice, a captain's call, a policy that he himself set.

The Leader of the Opposition and his deputy are so angry that they're angry that others aren't angry. I saw in the Australian today a report that they're so angry that they want small businesses to be angry. Small businesses just want to run a business. They just want to make sure they can employ people and serve the Australian people. But the opposition want small businesses to share their anger, so we've seen the Deputy Leader of the Opposition say that she wants small businesses to be more angry and more political. Again, small businesses just want to get on with their business.

I would ask something of all those in the coalition. There are a few more of them speaking on this MPI. Maybe one of them will tell us where their cost-of-living plan is. We know what you oppose: you oppose cheaper child care, you oppose fee-free TAFE and you want to cut the pension. We saw that from the shadow Treasurer last week. But they won't tell us what their plans are.

I note that this MPI talks about safety for Australians. Let's be clear: when this Leader of the Opposition sat at the cabinet table, he was responsible for a range of foreign policy failures, but he was also responsible for messes that led to this government having to commission three separate reviews: the Richardson review, the Parkinson review—that's the hefty one—and the Nixon review. They told us that the incompetence of the Leader of the Opposition led to a completely rorted visa system. They told us that, under this Leader of the Opposition's watch, they had created and encouraged, within the Home Affairs portfolio, the toxic, demoralising culture—the same as what we saw through robodebt.

This government has been left to clean up the mess left by the Leader of the Opposition. He left the borders wide open. He left communities less safe. He left systemic failures in our visa system. This Leader of the Opposition says, 'I'll open the door for more organised crime.' He opened the door for the Albanian mafia to infiltrate the country. Don't take it from me. Here's what Christine Nixon, the former Victorian Police Commissioner, had to say in the forward to her report—and I dare you to check this quote, Leader of the Opposition; if you want to have a debate about checking quotes, check this quote. This is the quote that I encourage you and all members, including the Leader of Opposition, to check:

I have been appalled by the abuses of sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other organised crime that have been presented to me …

That's Christine Nixon talking about the Department of Home Affairs under the watch of the Leader of the Opposition.

I encourage all members, including the Leader of the Opposition, to check this quote:

During the consultation phase of this review, it was raised that visa fraud was a common theme in many major investigations over the last five to 10 years relating to gangs, drug cartels, and casino money laundering.

Further, there was another quote:

Australia's visa system must be strengthened to resist organised crime syndicates, to ensure they don't prey upon Australia as an easy destination to conduct their exploitative and criminal business, and to protect those who are most vulnerable.

What was the Leader of the Opposition's response to all this? He cut combined staffing by 50 per cent. (Time expired)

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