Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What difference does it make that the member for Wentworth has replaced the member for Warringah as our Prime Minister? This is what people in my electorate want to know. They want to know what it means for them outside of this place. They have not forgotten, and on this side we have not forgotten, why the government has reached this decision point. It is not because of personality; it is because of policy. It is because of the dishonesty before the election, revealed after the election. It is because of the blind ideological pursuit of austerity and its impact, the unfairness at the core of the first budget which has been perpetuated throughout the life of this government—all those measures, every single one of them, proudly supported by the new Prime Minister. So, what difference does it make?

Mr Chester interjecting—

As Morrissey said, 'It makes none—Parliamentary Secretary Chester—unless policies change.' And they will not because Malcolm is in the middle of the reactionaries in his own parties, and the crowing Nats have extracted every ounce of credibility out of the new Prime Minister. So, his clever words, his process arguments, hide nothing. If he can walk away from that, I give him this challenge—to explain to the people of Scullin what difference his elevation means, not for him and his ego but for them.