Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] For the Prime Minister, every problem is someone else's problem; every crisis is someone else's responsibility. When he's called out on his failures—and he has been many times—the Prime Minister's response is always the same. He'll say, 'It's not my job,' 'It's a matter for the states,' or, 'I don't hold a hose.' We've seen examples of that continuously throughout his leadership. We saw it over and over during COVID. We saw it over and over during the bushfires. We've seen it continuously. Australia is one of the greatest countries in the world, but it's also very isolated. It's away from Europe and away from the US at the bottom of the earth. And through this Prime Minister's inaction we've become even more isolated.

The Prime Minister said that COVID isn't a race. This is what we were told by the Prime Minister, when it really was a race. The reality is that the Prime Minister was Australia's handicap in the race. Those of you who know about thoroughbred racing know we put weights on the horses to handicap them. That's what he did. He was the weight on Australia in that particular race. We're seeing the same thing on climate change. That is also a race that we need to work on very quickly, but even here we're starting with a very hefty handicap in the form of the Prime Minister, the member for New England, the member for Hughes and Clive Palmer. They're our handicaps in this race.

Instead of going missing and passing the buck, the Prime Minister needs to step up and be a leader. (Time expired)