Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister is not joining us in parliament today. He is not lost; he is in Lima for the APEC forum. But our Prime Minister has been a bit preoccupied in Peru. Instead of working with world leaders to build a prosperous vision for our region, he was looking over his shoulder, telling bemused journalists that the Australian opposition leader was a greater threat to world trade than President-elect Trump. Like Paddington Bear, the PM has been a bit lost in deepest, darkest Peru. He does 'try so hard to get things right', but this PM just does not know where he is going. He might as well have had a sign around his neck for passers-by saying, 'Please lead this Prime Minister.'

He has had a go at being led by the ideological extremists in his party room, waddling along behind Senator Bernardi and the member for Dawson on climate change, marriage equality and the republic. And now reports on the weekend suggest that he might try to waddle along behind the Labor Party on reforms to 457 visas. Well, he has got quite a bit of waddling to do if he wants to catch up with Labor on the exploitation of temporary migrant workers. We have had a comprehensive policy on this issue since long before the last election. Since then, we have committed to further changes to ensure that Australians have a chance to apply for jobs before they are offered to imported 457 visa holders, who are more vulnerable to exploitation. But Australians who care about jobs should not get their hopes up about our Paddington Prime Minister just yet. As the Wikipedia entry for Paddington Bear says, this kind of story, 'typically ends with him messing things up in some way'. That is the record of our Paddington Prime Minister.