Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a Prime Minister and a government that will say one thing and then do another. The fact is that they just cannot be trusted. The Prime Minister has backflipped on so many issues and changed his position just to appease the extreme elements of his party and also to appease the Nationals. He sold out to become Prime Minister. We see it across a range of issues—in particular, in terms of climate change, marriage equality and the republic. In relation to climate change, for example, on 22 February 2010, on Q&A, the current Prime Minister said:

My view is the market-based mechanism, the emissions trading scheme, is the most cost effective.

On 3 June 2010, on Sunrise, he said:

The Coalition does not have the best climate change policy, in my view.

Well, none of that seems to matter now. The Prime Minister has completely changed his view. He has sold out on the issue of taking action on climate change. On marriage equality, the Prime Minister now talks about wanting an expensive plebiscite rather than having this parliament decide. We want the parliament to deal with the issue, and it could deal with it this week.

Of course, just recently we have also seen the Prime Minister walk away from his previous commitment to a republic. Indeed, in November 1999, the now Prime Minister said that the coming republic 'needs a Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition working together to promote a Yes vote.' But now he is saying there is no rush—no rush at all; let's not do anything. He has totally backflipped on that.

The fact is the Prime Minister has built up a profile over a range of issues, and on all of those issues he has very shamefully backflipped. The fact is this Prime Minister will say one thing and do another.