Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister: Why did the government vote today to support a national integrity commission if it still hasn't decided whether it wants one?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is considering its position through a normal cabinet process. When it comes to the issues, this is what responsible governments do. We are not opposed to measures which add and lift the integrity of the way government is administered in this country, and so we do not remain closed to those options and will be considering a range of options about what is the best way to go forward.

But it says something about this Leader of the Opposition that, of the issues that he wants to bring into this chamber, when it comes to families and small businesses that are struggling to deal with getting access to finance or families that are dealing with electricity prices, the issues that he wants to raise don't relate to these. He doesn't want to come in here and talk about what is already his failed pink batteries policy—just a reheat of the failed policies that were happening the last time they were in government. He doesn't want to come here and talk about, explain or ask questions about what would be the impact of putting a 45 per cent reckless target on emissions reduction which would put in place a carbon price 10 times worse than the carbon tax that we had to abolish when we came to government. He doesn't want to talk about the higher subsidies that he wants to give to big electricity companies paid for by Australians, who will have to pay higher taxes as a result of what the Leader of the Opposition wants to inflict on the Australian economy. While the Leader of the Opposition is off on some sort of fringe issue, what we're focused on is the strength of our economy because that's what delivers the services, Medicare, disability insurance, support for veterans, Defence Force support—that's what delivers it.

The Leader of the Opposition likes to come in and talk about anything under the sun other than what makes an economy stronger, because, when it comes to managing the economy, the Leader of the Opposition has no clue. What he plans to do for the economy is bring in the wrecking ball of a big change, a chaotic change: policies that will disrupt the smooth running of our economy, that will put Medicare at risk, that will put hospital funding at risk and that will put education funding and schools funding at risk—just like it did when they had to not list affordable medicines because they'd run out of money because they'd spent it all. You cannot trust Labor on the economy, and that's why you cannot trust them on Medicare, schools and hospitals.