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

Another parliamentary sitting day and another pratfall for the Prime Minister. Earlier today the Senate supported Labor's move to reduce the Turnbull-Joyce government's 32 per cent backpacker tax to 10.5 per cent. This is just the latest misstep in a years-long policy shambles from those opposite. This government has no-one to blame but itself for this debacle. If it had just consulted with affected parties upon introduction of this misguided measure, it would have known how bad an idea this was from the start.

The Turnbull-Joyce government created this mess and, unless it now accepts the Senate's will, the consequences will be on its own head. This debacle shows a government that does not listen, does not know what it stands for and will not take responsibility for its own shambles. It shows a leadership group that is utterly without public credibility, a Prime Minister who does not believe what he is saying, a Treasurer who is not believed by anyone who is listening to what he is saying and a Deputy Prime Minister who no-one can understand what he is saying!

It is time that this government started providing the economic leadership that the Prime Minister promised upon his ascension to the leadership. Those opposite promised stable government after the last election. What we have been presented with since then is the Turnbull-Joyce-Hanson-Bernardi-Christensen-Culleton government. What a shambles!