Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm this week that he has been forced to correct himself twice over the Hawaiian holiday he took while Australia burned, denied ridiculing electric cars despite saying they would 'end the weekend' and claims he was not aware he said 'Shanghai Sam' 17 times? If the Prime Minister has no regard for what he said in the past, why should Australians have regard for what he's saying now?

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

The opposition are demonstrating once again, frankly, just how petty and small they are. Honestly, if you've got a small question to ask, ask the opposition. Because they only deal with small questions. If you've got a big question about what's going to happen with the economy, how are we going to guarantee national security, how are you going to cut taxes, how are we going to put pressure downward on costs of living and get electricity prices down, how are we going to get more people in trades training and ensure a million people are working in manufacturing and staying in those jobs—our government has the answers to those. Those opposite think whinging and whining and sledging is a recipe for getting into government. But it's not. You've actually got to have policies. You've actually got to have plans. You can't just stand up every day and have a whinge and a whine and a bit of a carry on. That's still why we don't know what their 2030 target is and we still don't know what all their tax policies are. That's why we can only go on what they've done before. What have they done before? $387 billion of higher taxes. They put a carbon tax on when they were last in government. They cut defence spending to the lowest levels, as a share of a our economy, since prior to the Second World War. They lost control of our borders. You want to talk about losing control? They lost control of our borders, and the Leader of the Opposition was front and centre when the weakness of that government was displayed.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is on direct relevance, Mr Speaker. I'm struggling to work out how this is even remotely close to the question.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was asked in a manner as to why should Australians listen to the Prime Minister now. That was the last question. The Prime Minister is entitled to respond to that.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The other reason why I believe and know that Australians are listening is that this government knows how to stand up for their interests and stand up to those who would seek to compromise their interests. I know, and our government knows, how to stand up to those countries not too far from here that would seek to coerce us and interfere in our country, in our universities, in our laws, and seek to affect us with trade and other forums. We know how to do that. We know how to call out action when it comes to human rights abuses overseas. We're not afraid to do that. We're not afraid to stand up to the bullies and the bigots and the bots who get on social media and try to troll those of religious faith. We're very happy to stand up to the big banks, the big energy companies, the multinationals or the big digital platforms when we've had to take them on—and we have. We've also been prepared to stand up to the organised criminal gangs and take them down. We've stood up to the people smugglers, and we'll stand up to all of those who seek to compromise the interests and affairs and best interests of our nation. It takes strength to lead this country—a strength the leader of the Labor Party does not possess in his very— (Time expired)