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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that since moving on Malcolm Turnbull the government has cancelled parliament because it couldn't decide who was the Prime Minister, lost two government members and its majority, and next year is going to run a part-time parliament? Has the government given up on even pretending to govern? And why isn't Malcolm Turnbull still the Prime Minister of Australia?

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

The leader of the Labor Party is so cocky that he thinks all he has to do to become Prime Minister is come in here and ask the same question every day. That's how cocky he has become. He thinks he can just walk into the job of Prime Minister without explaining to the Australian people why he wants to take a $200 billion tax sledgehammer to the Australian economy. He thinks he doesn't have to explain to the Australian people how taking our industrial relations arrangements back to the 1970s—to reintroduce division and conflict in our workplaces—is somehow supposed to support bringing Australians together to make a stronger economy.

What we know of this Leader of the Opposition is that he think that he can so simply become the Prime Minister of this country that he can just give up on growing the Australian economy or having one policy that might seek to grow the Australian economy. He thinks the way to deliver essential services in this country is just to tax Australians more. That is a confession that he does not know how to run a strong budget and he does not know how to oversee a strong economy.

But I can tell him, again, what our government has been getting on with the job of doing. Whether it was announcing the new city deal up in Darwin, which will be ensuring a better standard of living and livelihood for people living in our tropical capital; or the fact that we have finalised negotiations on the Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement; that we put $300 million over the next four years to reduce red tape for small businesses; and that we are delivering on ensuring that small businesses get paid on time, and that their payment terms go from 30 days down to 20 days—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bruce is warned.

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

The women of this country can continue to expect the support of our government as we see record levels of female participation in the workforce and the gender pay gap coming down to record lows. We are providing security and safety for Australians by introducing into this House legislation that will cancel the citizenship of people who engage in terrorist acts. Whether they're terrorists that come from a radical Islamic extremist view that is the most dangerous form of religious extremism in this country—if we believe they have other citizenship and they have committed a terrorist act, we will cancel their citizenship. On top of that, we will introduce temporary exclusion orders to ensure that returning foreign fighters do not get to come back into this country and wreak havoc.

This is a government that knows how to keep our economy strong and how to keep Australians safe. We are getting on with the job of doing all of those things. This is an arrogant and cocky Leader of the Opposition who thinks all he has to do is turn up in parliament, throw a few zingers around and— (Time expired)