Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a good chance that we have no more than five sitting days before the Prime Minister pulls the pin and calls a double dissolution election. But Australians have still got no idea about what this guy stands for. At least with the former Prime Minister we had a pretty good idea about what he was on about: cuts to Medicare and over $80 billion worth of cuts to schools and hospitals. He was about ripping money out of the budgets of families, with family tax benefit cuts. He was about having a go at pensioners. At least we knew what that bloke stood for.

But, as we have less than five sitting days before this bloke pulls the pin on a double dissolution election, we have no tax policy, we have the Prime Minister and the Treasurer out there with his big 'gotcha' moment—it reminded you a bit of Godwin Grech, didn't it? He had this big gotcha that was going to pull us down, only to have to admit that the big gotcha report was produced two months before the policy it was supposed to criticise. With gotcha moments like that, come in spinner.

I got a phone call from Max from my electorate before I came down here for question time, and Max said, 'Steve, how many Malcolm Turnbulls does it take to change a light globe?' I said, 'I don't know, Max.' He said, 'None, because Malcolm Turnbull changes nothing.' Ain't that the truth.