Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

By-election indeed. This is the one word that puts shivers down Julia Gillard’s spine. It is the one word that will have her drop everything—by-election. Here we have the Prime Minister who, faced with two incompetent ministers she wanted to sack, did not have the courage, the guts, to make the right decision in the national interest. If the Prime Minister cannot have confidence in two of her ministers, how can the Australian people have confidence in those ministers? I dare to make a guess that one of those ministers she wanted to sack would have been Peter Garrett. I am prepared to guess that one of the ministers that she wanted to sack, based on his incompetent handling of the home insulation fiasco, was Peter Garrett, but instead of going ahead with that original decision she gives him control of our schools. I would like to think that on behalf of the Australian people this government will perform better over the next three years than it has done in the past. But looking at the track record so far I do not have a lot of confidence that it will, and this opposition will hold this government to account every single step of the way.