Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is yet another demonstration of this government’s absolute incompetence. The government’s administrative incompetence and their policy incompetence are very well known. I think what is less appreciated is this government’s legislative incompetence, their inability to manage the parliamentary program in both the House and the Senate. This failure to manage the legislative program is all the more amazing when you consider just how thin this government’s legislative program is.

You would remember, Madam Acting Deputy President, how this current government fought and scratched, how they huffed and puffed, how they pulled every trick in the book to try and form government after the last election. And you would assume that, when a party fought so desperately to form government, fought so hard, that they would have a significant legislative agenda, that they would have a program for the nation, that they would have significant reforms which they wanted to implement through the parliament of Australia. That is what you would think. But if you look through the legislative program of this year and last year you would be surprised. At the end of last year the great legislative item which this parliament passed, at the behest of this government, was the national weights and measures act. When you look through the agenda at the end of last year for the most significant piece of legislation that government had fought for and come into office to pass, it was the national weights and measures act. As you look down the list of bills this year, you would be hard pressed to find the answer as to why they fought so hard to get back into office. The answer, we know, cannot be the carbon tax, because this government did not go to the polls with a carbon tax.