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

I seek leave to move that this House has no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion forthwith:

That this House declares no confidence in the Prime Minister.

This is about the decent, honest, hardworking people of Australia, who deserve a strong, stable and competent government. This is about reassuring the Australian people that we are a great people and we are a great country, just momentarily let down by our very poor government—an incompetent and chaotic government that just gets worse and worse with each passing hour, let alone each passing day. This is about the people of Australia, their welfare and what they deserve from government, which is competence and honesty, and that is what they have failed to get from this government.

Standing orders must be suspended to enable this matter to be discussed forthwith, because not only does the coalition have no confidence in this Prime Minister but, plainly, senior members of her own government no longer have confidence in this Prime Minister. We have just heard a remarkable statement from the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government—a decent, honourable man and yes, a political opponent of mine and of members on this side of the House—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

I would ask members opposite to show sufficient respect for a former leader of their party and a decent, honest member of the extended Labor family for me to repeat what he said in this building just a short while ago: this is a government in deadlock. This is a government in crisis. This is a government that can no longer go on as it has gone on over recent days and weeks and months. What the minister for regional Australia has done is pronounce against this Prime Minister and against this government, while this Prime Minister happens to be leading it, the immortal words, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand'. That is the classic judgement that the minister for regional Australia has pronounced against his own government and the Prime Minister, and that is why standing orders must be suspended, because this cannot go on. The people of Australia deserve a strong and stable government, but what is absolutely crystal clear is that that cannot continue under this Prime Minister.

We know that these are difficult times for our country. There is a continuing economic crisis in much of Europe. We cannot be confident that economic growth in China will continue at the current rate forever. We have the Treasury itself indicating that budget deficits will continue at high levels at least until 2017. At a time like this, more than ever, our country needs strong and stable government, yet clearly it is never going to get it—at least not from this Prime Minister. If we look at just the last fortnight, at all the panicked measures this government has brought before this parliament—not for the good of our country but for the survival of the Prime Minister in particular—we realise that this is a government that has lost its way, not a good government that has lost its way but a very poor government that has lost its way, a government that, if the honest truth were to be known, most members opposite now feel embarrassed about.

We had the coal-seam gas changes rushed into this chamber without any serious consultation with the industry, without any serious consultation with the gas providers who, at least in some states, are running out of supplies. We had $300 million in borrowed money for childcare workers, we had $1.2 billion in borrowed money for aged care workers but—this is the interesting thing—not more money for poorly paid workers, which obviously no decent Australian would begrudge. The extraordinary thing is that this turns out to be conditional on an EBA negotiated with the relevant union. In other words, this is a taxpayer funded recruitment drive for the unions that this Prime Minister's leadership depends upon.

Then, of course, we had the disgraceful attack on the skilled migrants, who are so important for this country's present and future. Finally, we had the media changes that were absolutely vital for the national interest just a few days ago and have now been humiliatingly withdraw from the parliament because this Prime Minister was not big enough to declare that these were matters of confidence in her and confidence in her government and require the Independents who sustain her in power to vote for them.

Let me congratulate the crossbench members of this chamber for standing up for the sacred principles of free speech, on which our democracy does depend. Let us remind, once again, this House of the words of the Prime Minister that will haunt her to her political grave—along with the immortal statement, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead'—'Let's hear no sanctimonious nonsense about free speech.' Is it any wonder that crossbench members of this parliament are losing faith in this Prime Minister? This is why standing orders have to be suspended.

There has been policy failure after policy failure from this government. There is the extraordinary disaster on our borders, with boat after boat. I think we have had something like four boats in 24 hours—it just gets worse every day. This Prime Minister has completely abdicated her responsibilities to control our borders. There is the live cattle trade suspension, jeopardising our relationship with our country's most important neighbour. There is the waste in school halls that cost double the price they should have. There is the National Broadband Network, a $50 billion-plus project way behind schedule and way over budget. Until recently, there were more paid staff for the NBN than there were paying subscribers.

There is the deception, the chronic, congenital deception, that we get from this government and this Prime Minister, whether it be the deception of the member for Denison; the deception and the betrayal of the former Speaker, the member for Scullin; the deception and the betrayal of the former Prime Minister, the member for Griffith; the deception and the betrayal of the Australian public over the carbon tax that was never going to happen and then had to happen; the deception and the betrayal over the budget surplus that was going to be delivered, come what may—'No ifs, no buts; it will happen'—and now, of course, is not going to happen, according to Treasury advice, until 2017; or the betrayal of Labor values.

A decent Labor person would never put his or her own political survival ahead of good government and ahead of the best interests of a once great political party, the Australian Labor Party. As members of this House know, I have seen enough of politics and I have seen enough of good people on both sides of this chamber to have some respect for the Labor Party, of which it was once said: 'There is a light on the hill, working for the betterment of mankind, not just here but wherever we can lend a helping hand.' That once great political party is now reduced to being a political life-support system for just one person: the current Prime Minister. I say to the current Prime Minister: for your party's good, you should go. For our country's good, you should go. You should go.

We are a great people. We are a great country. I very much fear that we can never reach our potential under this Prime Minister and this government. I think it is time to give the people a chance to choose the Prime Minister and to choose the government. On the 50th anniversary of the faceless men being shown in a photograph in the Daily Telegraph, I say: let's get rid of the faceless men. Let's have a new Prime Minister and a new government.

Ms Anna Burke (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

Madam Speaker, I second the motion. Standing orders must be suspended because the Australian people deserve better than this Prime Minister. The Australian people deserve better than this government.

The Prime Minister clearly does not have the confidence of her own party. The Greens, the party with whom she formed an alliance, have withdrawn their support. Today, the Prime Minister was contemplating withdrawing bills she regarded as so urgent that they had to be passed this week, because she has lost the support of the members for Denison, Lyne and Dobell, all of whom she had relied upon and who were critical to propping up her chaotic government and keeping her in power. The fact is that this Prime Minister's government was founded on written agreements with the Greens, the member for Denison, the member for New England and the member for Lyne. The member for Denison had his trust betrayed by this Prime Minister and he ripped up the agreement in disgust. The Greens have ripped up their agreement with this Prime Minister because of her shambolic handling of the mining tax.

The only written agreements that remain are those with the member for New England and the member for Lyne. They must search their consciences as to whether it is in the national interest for this chaotic Prime Minister to continue to lead her chaotic government; whether they should continue to prop up the current Prime Minister with more of the instability, more of the dysfunction and more of the bad policy that we have seen under her watch; or whether they should return to the chaotic administration of the member for Griffith. They must realise that there is no hope of stability with a party that is so divided that it is beyond hope and where, if the member for Griffith is returned, the dark forces of the Prime Minister will be deployed against him.

The fact is that the Prime Minister has now lost the support of one of her strongest supporters, the minister for regional development. He has declared he would rather support the member for Griffith than put up with more of this Prime Minister's leadership. He described the member for Griffith as a prima donna, not a team player and so disloyal, but he would rather put up with the member for Griffith than have to continue to serve under this Prime Minister.

The Australian people deserve so much better than this Prime Minister. The Australian people deserve so much better than this government, that has turned governing into an embarrassing farce under a Prime Minister interested in protecting her job and clinging to power, at whatever cost, so that she can remain in the Lodge.

This is all to the cost of the Australian people—to the cost of the confidence of the Australian people—who have taken such a battering under this Prime Minister. She is a Prime Minister who declares war day after day on another section of the Australian public. Whether it is single mothers, overseas skilled workers or media critics, she pits people one against the other in a divided and ugly attempt at governing this country. It is divisive, ugly politics.

The fact is that irrespective of who wins this ballot for the ALP leadership at 4.30 today, there will be no stability with this government. Clearly, the ALP is riven down the middle. There are irreconcilable splits between factions and between camps. It is deep; it is personal; it is vicious—and it will not go away.

The current Prime Minister leads a chaotic government and she is the central cause. She is central to the dysfunction of this government. That she does not have—nor does she deserve—the confidence of her own political party, let alone the confidence of the Australian people, which is quite evidence from the bad calls she has made day after day while leading this party. Her flip-flopping on the key issue of border security tells us how bad her political judgement is. The media bills that we have seen introduced into this House, the broken promises on the carbon tax and the broken promise on the budget surplus tell us that she has no political confidence and no competence. The live cattle export fiasco tells us she has no judgement.

So, if this Prime Minister is re-elected by her party there will be a continuing shambles. It will continue to be a government that is a joke internationally—a government that is now a parody of itself. The member for Griffith represents the same shambles, so this government cannot function. It was the member for Griffith who started the dysfunction in this House. He is responsible for the original decision that led to the border security shambles carried on by this Prime Minister. So whomever the members of the caucus choose, the instability and dysfunction will continue.

We have all read what the members say about each other in private. We have all read what they say about each other in public. The fact is that the Australian people deserve better than this. We need a change— (Time expired)

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

What we have seen across the contributions of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is the same negative dummy-spit that they have been engaged in since the 2010 election. The Leader of the Opposition just had an opportunity to indicate to the Australian people, if he chose to take it, what his vision is for the country, and what his leadership attributes are. Instead, because he is unable to do that, he filled the space with the only thing he knows, and that is negativity, bitterness and the politics of personal assault.

To the Leader of the Opposition and to the team he leads I say that their lack of vision and their inability in opposition to come up with any costed, credible policies for the nation condemns them to be where they should be, and that is on the opposition benches. Despite all of the invective; despite the Tea Party tactics; despite their call for a people's revolt; despite all of the negativity we have seen from the opposition; despite their, since the first day of this government after the 2010 election, seeking to put this parliament into chaos—despite all of that—this is a government that has got on with the job and has governed well. And we are continuing to govern well.

Let's look at the facts for the Australian people, as opposed to this insider ranting that we have heard from the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The facts are these. Our economy is growing. It has come through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, showing its resilience and still creating jobs. The only surprising thing the Leader of the Opposition said in his 10-minute contribution was that, at sometime overnight, he had worked out that there is such a thing as the global financial crisis—something he denied in this House yesterday. He denied in this House yesterday that the global financial crisis was continuing in any way.

We have always understood that our nation faced a huge challenge. The challenge continues, with instability in the global economy and the reshaping of our economy through the high Australian dollar. And day after day, piece after piece, we have met that challenge to create jobs for Australians—more than 900,000 of them—and we will continue to create jobs into the future. We have not simply been concerned about creating jobs—jobs with any benefits and conditions. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition and his team we have always determined that the jobs needed to be ones that offered the benefits and dignity of work, where people got treated fairly in their workplace.

I am proud that this week we have extended more fairness to workers in childcare centres. Why shouldn't women, predominantly, who care for children—the most precious asset in our country—enjoy proper pay and proper benefits and dignity at work? Why can't the Leader of the Opposition be a big enough man to support that? We have, as a government, piece after piece made sure that there is fairness and dignity at work. We brought in the Fair Work Act—and we are proud of it. We brought about a better deal for shipping workers—and we are proud of it. We brought a better deal for truck drivers—and we are proud of it. We brought a better deal for textile, clothing and footwear workers—and we are proud it. We brought a better deal for the outworkers who do sewing in their own homes. We brought about a better deal for aged-care workers—and we are proud of it. We brought about a better deal for women who look after women in domestic violence refuges and the like—the great workers of our social and community sector. And we have extended those benefits to child care too. And we have more to do.

At the same time as we have ensured that there are jobs—decent jobs with fairness and dignity at work—we have worked to benefit families with all of the pressures that they face today. We have introduced new benefits that have been decried and campaigned against by this Leader of the Opposition. I am talking about benefits like a paid parental leave scheme for mums and dads; an historic pension increase; the Schoolkids Bonus, to help with the cost of getting the kids to school; an increase in the tax free threshold so that poorer workers—low-income workers, predominantly women, who are predominantly the second income earners in a home, who go back to work after they have had their children—can get to keep more of their pay packet. A million of them paying no tax at all.

As we have done that, we have worked out how else can we support families. We can bring more doctors, more nurses, more local control, more resources into hospitals than ever before, and we have. We can bring a national disability insurance scheme to end for ever the fear in Australian households that, if someone in that family got a disability, they would be thrown into a circumstance where they had no control and insufficient care and support. We, as a government, have extended these benefits because we believe in them. They are the Labor way. They are our way. We have delivered them in the difficult circumstance of this parliament.

This is a government that, against relentless negativity, has governed for the fortunes of all Australians and governed well. And, let me assure the Leader of the Opposition, we are not done yet. We have got more to do to bring fairness and opportunity into our country, more to do to make sure that our country is ready for the opportunities that will come with this century of growth and change in our region.

It is this government that has outlined the roadmap to that future—a future of prosperity where we are a nation. So long have we struggled with being isolated from the biggest markets in the world, now we are on the doorstep of what will be the biggest markets in the world. There are more middle-class consumers in one region than there has ever been before in human history—more consumers in one region than there has ever been before in human history. And here we are as a nation—strong, resilient, emerging from the global financial crisis well—positioned to make sure the benefits of those opportunities flow to all Australians.

It is the future of opportunity and prosperity that is not assured. There is nothing about our position in the world that guarantees for the future that we will be a high-wage, high-skill economy. If you make the wrong decisions, you will not get there. Which is why—methodically, carefully, day after day—we have made the right decisions to get our nation there. The right decision to roll out the infrastructure of the 21st century—the National Broadband Network—despite the opposition and negativity of those sitting on the opposition benches. We have invested more in traditional infrastructure—roads, rail, ports—than ever before. There are more students getting university degrees than ever before. And kids from poorer households are getting a chance, for the first time in our nation's history, to be the first in their family to get to university education in large numbers. This is something I was told as education minister could not be done: We have brought about more apprenticeships and more traineeships than ever before. We have held those numbers, even during this worst of economic downturns, because we understand that a ticket to a good future can often be that trade certificate that emerges from an apprenticeship. We are not done yet in bringing an opportunity. School funding reforms will ensure we do not have multiple classes of children in our country with some kids going very well indeed and some getting left behind. There is one opportunity for all Australian children and it is the opportunity to get a great education so that you can have a decent run-up to a great life.

We are not done yet in making sure, as we bring these benefits to Australians, that they flow throughout the economy. We will not close the doors on sharing the benefits of the mining boom and harnessing them for just a few. We will not treat Australians as if there are a few who are in the inner circle and the rest who are somehow in another class. We have always worked, and we will always work, to ensure that benefits are spread and opportunities are shared. That is our mission. That is our creed. That is what Labor governments do. That is what this Labor government has done. It is what it has done under my prime ministership, and it is what it will do under my prime ministership from this day forth.

We will ensure that our eyes remain focused on the opportunities for Australians and the benefits they need, and we will fight and fight and fight the Leader of the Opposition's campaign to take opportunity away from Australians, to visit cutbacks on their head, to make sure that they are hurt the same way they have been hurt by governments like the Newman government. We will fight and fight and fight that, and when the election is held in September, we will prevail in that election, because the choice will be so clear, and the right path for a stronger, smarter, fairer future will be so clear as well. (Time expired)

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

The House divided. [14:39]

(The Speaker—Ms Anna Burke)

Question negatived.

The question is not carried by an absolute majority of members as required under standing order 47.

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

I asked the Leader of the Opposition to take his best shot and we got that damp squib, so they obviously do not want question time.