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

Since coming to government, Prime Minister Morrison has tried to run the country like he ran Tourism Australia—with stunts, slogans and a healthy dose of incompetence. Now the bloke who couldn't sell Aussie beaches to British backpackers is trying to sell the Australian public on a rebrand of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. The voters of Wentworth sent the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government a resounding message on the weekend, in the form of the biggest swing against the government in by-election history. In response, Prime Minister Morrison, in a raving speech on the night, shouted right back at the Australian public that he would stay the course and change nothing. True to his word, the coalition returned to parliament this week, and the coalition that promised stable government and delivered the Muppet Show has been straight back at it, squabbling with each other all week.

Today, we've witnessed the former Deputy Prime Minister publicly fighting with the current Prime Minister about whether the former Prime Minister should represent Australia at an international forum in Bali. It's all part of a broader fight within the coalition about who's to blame for Wentworth—Malcolm Turnbull, Alan Jones, the member for Dickson, Peta Credlin or the members for Reid and Chisholm. We see on The Australian editorial page, 'The sookening has split the party in its search for a scapegoat'. Like another famously out-of-touch aristocracy, they've learnt nothing and they've forgotten nothing. It hasn't occurred to any of them that the public don't have a horse in these internal Liberal-National fights. They want a government that listens to them—and the government should call an election and give them a chance.