Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Warringah moving immediately—That the Prime Minister explain to the House how the extraordinary public revelations of the dysfunction, division and chaos at the centre of this government over the last 18 months will end with today’s bloodletting. Further, how the government will now address the real problems facing the Australian people, namely:

(1) cost of living pressures exacerbated by the carbon tax;

(2) the border protection chaos caused by the government ending policies that worked; and

(3) pressure on jobs that government policies are just making worse.

Mr Speaker, standing orders must be suspended because it is absolutely crystal clear to the Australian people that we have a divided, dishonest and incompetent government. Today, one-third of the caucus and one-quarter of the cabinet agreed with the coalition's assessment of this government. We all know that the Prime Minister and her backers are saying that, somehow, the result today was good news for the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister claim to have the confidence of this House when 31 members of the caucus voted for someone whom the member for Bendigo last week called a psychopath? How can that be good news for this Prime Minister? This is why standing orders must be suspended.

Fundamentally, this Prime Minister has a trust problem, and that is the most important issue that should be before this House—the trust problem that this Prime Minister has, which was on display yet again just a half an hour before question time. We all know that last week the Prime Minister ferociously attacked the then foreign minister. She said: 'The government that Kevin Rudd had led had entered a period of paralysis. Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister always had very difficult and very chaotic work patterns. Government, by contrast, requires consistency, purpose, method, discipline, inclusion, consultation, which the member for Griffith did not have.' So here we have, last week, the Prime Minister's candid assessment of the member for Griffith, and what does she say today? She says: 'We must honour his many achievements. Kevin Rudd led this nation through the global financial crisis. He delivered the apology to the stolen generations. He has been an amazing advocate of Australia's interest on the world stage, and he has made so many other remarkable achievements.' He has made so many other remarkable achievements, except that he was the greatest prima donna the Labor Party has ever known, because that is what she said last Thursday.

Standing orders must be suspended because this Prime Minister has a trust problem and a truth problem. This Prime Minister cannot even maintain a consistent position from Thursday to Monday. That is the problem with this Prime Minister. She did not tell the truth to the former Prime Minister in June of last year, she did not tell the truth to the Australian people before the election about the carbon tax, she did not tell the truth to the member for Denison about poker machine changes and she cannot even tell the truth today. That is why standing orders must be suspended. That is the most important matter before this House.

Over the years I have had a lot of disagreements with the member for Griffith, but he was right when he said last week that the Prime Minister 'has lost the trust of the Australian people'. But it is not just that the Prime Minister has lost the trust of the Australian people—the Prime Minister has not delivered good government to the Australian people. Kevin Rudd, the member for Griffith, nailed that last week when he said:

It wasn’t K Rudd who made a pre-election commitment on a carbon tax. It wasn’t K Rudd who made a particular commitment to Mr Wilkie on the question of poker machines. It wasn’t K Rudd who had anything to do with the East Timor solution or the Malaysia solution. These were initiatives and decisions taken uniquely by the prime minister.

Standing orders must be suspended because this is a government with a fundamental problem identified by the former Prime Minister and the former foreign minister. There is the faceless men problem, there is the trust problem and there is the problem of a Prime Minister who has no core beliefs.

Do not think that the faceless men are going to go away—oh no! We know what the faceless men are doing. They are at work today, and they will be at work in the future, because they just cannot help themselves. And that is not me speaking, that is the minister for resources—someone who has no confidence in this Prime Minister, someone who has no confidence in a government run by this Prime Minister and someone who has told the truth. I congratulate him for telling the truth, because there is a truth deficit disorder in the modern Labor Party and no-one suffers from that dreadful political syndrome more than this Prime Minister.

Mr Danby interjecting—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will pause for a moment. The member for Melbourne Ports will remain silent for the rest of the leader's contribution.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is no secret that I am not the greatest admirer of the Australian Labor Party, but I pity a once great party that has been brought low by such unworthy people. There was a party that once worked, in the immortal words of Ben Chifley, 'for the betterment of mankind'. What has it been reduced to? It has been reduced to a party that is simply a vehicle for the ego and the ambition of this unworthy Prime Minister.

I say to the Australian people that we are so much better than this. I say to the Australian people that we can have better government. I say to the Australian people that better days are coming, because we are a great country being let down by a seriously bad government. Nothing at all is going to change as a result of today's vote. We will still have the carbon tax, which will clobber the jobs and the standard of living of every Australian family. We will still have the appalling chaos on our borders created entirely by the decisions of this government and maintained by the extraordinary stubbornness of this Prime Minister, who does not have the decency or the humility to admit that there are policies that worked. And we will still have a Prime Minister who is far more focused on her job than she is on protecting the jobs of Australian people. Everything this Prime Minister said today—and this is why standing orders must be suspended—is about protecting her job. Everything that this Prime Minister has said or done in this House betrays the fact that this Prime Minister fundamentally lacks the magnanimity necessary to hold the great office of Prime Minister.

There is a better way, but only the coalition can deliver to this country the stable government that it deserves. Only the coalition can give this country the hope, reward and opportunity that the Australian people need and deserve. Only the coalition can give us a strong economy because we will get government spending down and productivity up. If you get government spending down you take the pressure off interest rates and you allow taxes to be responsibly reduced. We will get productivity up because we are not run by faceless men—the same faceless men who dictate the policy of this government when it comes to workplace relations.

Mr Byrne interjecting—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member for Holt will remain silent.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the last few days the Australian people have been embarrassed by the spectacle of this Prime Minister humiliated as a once great political party tears itself to pieces. But things will improve. Do you know how they will improve? They will improve with an election. I say to the member for Griffith that if he really does believe in people power then that is what he should want—an election. He should want an election because the prime ministership of this country should never again be the plaything of the faceless men; it should always be in the gift of the Australian people, and none but the Australian people should choose. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. It is important that the House suspend standing orders because this House and the Australian public deserve an honest explanation from this Prime Minister—a Prime Minister who has a passing acquaintance with the truth; a Prime Minister who in recent days has unleashed her dogs of war to incite an unprecedented wave of vitriol and public vilification against a former leader of the Labor Party and a former Labor Prime Minister. It is important that standing orders are suspended so that the Prime Minister can explain why she sent out her lieutenants to describe a former Prime Minister of this nation and a former foreign minister of this nation as 'a psychopath with a huge ego', as 'deeply flawed' and having 'great weaknesses', as someone 'disloyal to the labour movement', as a person 'whose behaviour became increasingly erratic' and as someone who 'showed contempt for cabinet, contempt for the parliament and contempt for the Australian public'.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This motion is for a suspension of standing orders. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition was quite prepared to move multiple points of order the last time that I spoke on one of these suspensions. I ask the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to come back to the question.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House is entirely correct. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will focus on the motion moved by her leader.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The suspension must be allowed so that the Prime Minister can explain why her lieutenants called the foreign minister somebody with chaotic work patterns who sabotaged the 2010 campaign. The Prime Minister appointed this—on her assessment; on Labor's assessment—'deeply flawed individual with a personality disorder' as foreign minister. Labor say that he was fit to be the foreign minister of this country. On that basis—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is now making allegations on the basis of a motion that is for a suspension of standing orders. They did not seek leave to do so.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are being frivolous.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Dickson will remove himself from the chamber under the provisions of standing order 94(a). I, as the chair, will determine whether a point of order is frivolous.

The member for Dickson then left the chamber.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is defying your ruling. She must speak to the substance of the motion before the chair, which is the suspension of standing orders.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will focus on the motion.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Standing orders must be suspended so that the Prime Minister can explain how the extraordinary public revelations of the dysfunction, division and chaos at the centre of the government over the last 18 months will end with today's bloodletting. On Labor's own assessment of their former leader and of their current leader, their choice today was between a psychopath and a sociopath, with the Labor Party in continuous group therapy for the last three years. It is important that we suspend standing orders because some of these comments were made by the Prime Minister, who saw fit to conduct a campaign of vilification from the prime ministerial office, another example of the squalid culture of the Prime Minister's office that gave rise to the riots on Australia Day. That is why standing orders must be—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat now. She no longer has the call. The question is that the motion be agreed to. I call the Prime Minister.

Mr Truss interjecting—

The Leader of the Nationals will remove himself from the chamber under the provisions of standing order 94(a). He specifically said that my ruling was outrageous and he is lucky that he has not been named. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat. I have withdrawn the call from her. I asked her to focus on the motion before the chair. I have given the call to the Prime Minister.

The member for Wide Bay then left the chamber.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this debate.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on the actions that you have just taken against both the Leader of the National Party and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Given the unprecedented nature of removing the call from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, I ask you, Mr Speaker, to explain the basis for that action so that we are aware of how we should conduct ourselves in the future rather than perhaps simply making the same mistakes again—if indeed they did make mistakes.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reason that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was required to resume her seat was because she was not being relevant to the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a separate point of order, the Prime Minister has not been able to begin her contribution. I would ask that the clock be started again.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat. The question is that the motion be agreed to. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this debate, because it is about the priorities of the Australian nation. The priorities of the Australian people should be debated in this House—their focus on jobs; on making lives for their families; on the benefits that their families need so that they can support themselves; on a great education for their children; on their young people being able to get apprenticeships or university places; on health and on making sure that they can go to an emergency department, see a doctor when they need to and get elective surgery; and on making sure that our nation has a stronger and fairer future. And those things are the focus of the government.

What should be the subject of debate in this parliament? We can have the squalor of the opposition's approach or we can focus on managing the economy in the interests of working people. We can focus on the more than 700,000 jobs already created under this Labor government. We can focus on an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent when around the world nations suffer unemployment rates of double that. We can focus on what is needed in 2012 to support Australian jobs in manufacturing. I would happily have a debate about our plan for manufacturing versus the half-a-billion-dollar cut and the end of assistance to the car industry being advocated by those opposite. I would happily debate our plans to keep tens of thousands of Australians in work as opposed to the plans of the opposition to end those jobs. That is the proper business of this parliament. In this suspension, what the opposition seeks to do is carve out parliamentary time for its squalor rather than for the purpose of talking about Australian jobs.

At the same time, we have the opposition saying, 'Let's devote parliamentary time to the pursuit of our naked political interest, not to important issues like how we seize a clean energy future.' They are embarrassed to be reminded, time after time, of their contradictions and hypocrisy on pricing carbon. Former Prime Minister Howard is repudiated by this shambolic opposition, former Prime Minister Howard is dispensed with as if he had never said that there should be an emissions trading scheme.The opposition do not want to have that debate because they do not want the Australian people to understand that their plan is about costing Australian families $1,300 each and that their plan is about taking tax cuts and pension increases and family payment increases away from working families. They do not want that debated in this parliament so they continue these cheap tricks.

They do not want debated in this parliament our plans for health reform versus their plans for health cutbacks. This Labor government has delivered an historic health reform agreement and in 2012 it is being rolled out around the nation, meaning that there are more doctors and more nurses and more healthcare services available. They never want to debate health, because they have got plans for cutbacks now, just as the Leader of the Opposition had plans for cutbacks when he was a long-serving minister for health in the Howard government. They do not want that debated; they just want to focus on the cheap politics. They do not want debated what is happening in Australian schools, because they do not want Australians to know that they have plans to cut back money going to disadvantaged schools, they have plans to cut back money going into improving teacher quality and they have plans to cut back money going into the infrastructure that kids need to learn in the 21st century, like computers in schools. They never bring on a debate about those issues—that is, quality education from this Labor government versus their plans for cutbacks in schools.

Nor do they want to debate our plans to roll out the National Broadband Network, or the achievement by this Labor government of the structural separation of Telstra, because they do not want Australians to know that they are committed to pulling the broadband out of the ground, making sure that this nation falls behind world standards, and to losing all the jobs come with it. Despite the bravado of the Leader of the Opposition at the start of the parliamentary year, the last thing they want is a debate about the economy in 2012. The last thing they want to do is debate the government's plan for a new skills agenda—an agenda for Australians to have the high-skills high-wage jobs of the future—or the government's plan for a budget surplus, because they are hoping that no-one notices the fact that until they cut $70 billion of services for working families they cannot even get the budget to the starting line. They do not want to be debating the government's programs and plans for managing this structural change in our economy, change that is putting pressure on some sectors but is full of opportunity for the future. They do not want Australians to understand the new benefits that this Asian century can bring to our economy, which will come as our region grows and prospers. We can prosper with it.

Instead, they would rather focus on their endless game-playing and their endless politics. That is because they are focused on cheap politics, whilst we are focused on the future. In the Leader of the Opposition's own motion he points to three issues. Cost of living—let us have a debate about their Coles and Woolies tax to fund their ridiculous paid parental leave scheme, which as usual is destined to give the biggest benefits to those at the top. They have never found a billionaire they did not want to shovel money at.

The Leader of the Opposition mentioned border protection in his motion—let us debate that and the plans the opposition has to put Australian lives on the line and to put Australian lives in danger. The opposition would rather profit politically than protect the men and women who serve in the Australian Defence Force. The Leader of the Opposition has also talked about jobs. The last thing he really wants to do is have a debate in this parliament about jobs, standing proudly as he does for the end of steelworking jobs, standing proudly as he does for the end of car industry jobs, standing proudly as he does for denying Australians the jobs and opportunities of the future, because he has got no plans to build the future we need.

The House should not agree to this motion. It should not follow the Leader of the Opposition down the road of negativity. Australians expect us as a government and as a parliament to have them at centre stage: their needs, their dreams, their prospects and their future. That is our focus as a government as we are impatient to get on with the work that will deliver to those working people today and build them the future that they want. The House should reject out of hand this further squalor from the opposition for what it is.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak against this motion to suspend standing and sessional orders. This is the 41st time that the opposition have unsuccessfully moved a suspension of standing orders and they do it for one purpose—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I appreciate the theatre of the Leader of the House wanting to have a say because he cannot bear to miss out. Surely the time—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The Leader of the House has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite do this day after day for two reasons: (1) because they do not have anything to say about Australia's future in the great policy debates before this nation, and (2) so that for a brief period they can sit on the government benches. What we have put up with since 2010 is the longest dummy spit in Australian political history! And we see it again here today: they have two speakers, but their great objection is that we here on this side have two speakers. Let me say this: we only need one person to beat you lot and that person is the Prime Minister!

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the chair is that the motion for the suspension of standing and sessional orders moved by the honourable Leader of the Opposition be agreed to.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.