Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's a question that many people on this side of the House would like to ask the Prime Minister, and it's whether he could update the House on how the Abbott-Truss-Turnbull-Joyce-Morrison-McCormack government's stable and certain approach to party leadership is paying dividends for the Australian people and whether he's aware of any alternative approaches. I mean, life really does come at you fast, doesn't it! The fact of the matter is that this government is anything but stable and anything but certain. Those opposite can't agree on deputies: they can't agree on who the Deputy Prime Minister is going to be and, sadly I've got to say, Mr Deputy Speaker, not enough of them could agree that you should be our Deputy Speaker. Everyone on this side of the House knows you are going to do an excellent job. Those opposite can't agree on policy and they can't even agree on the facts. A few moments ago you had a perfect example of it from the member for Hughes, who, on a daily basis, comes into this place and uses parliament as a platform to pedal the conspiracy theories of internet clowns. That is his stick, and he's protected by too many people on that side of the House. The greatest tragedy was this week when we saw the Prime Minister announce he was going to provide $4 million for a feasibility study on a power station that will never be built, while the people on the South Coast running businesses can't get the basic support to get them back on their feet.