Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Mr Deputy Presi­dent, on your last question time today. Congratulations also to Senators Trood and Barnett.

Senator Joyce concentrated on the question to Senator Ludwig, and I will touch on that briefly before I go to broader questions in question time today. Cheap quips and suggestions that we are turning into a vegan society aside, perhaps the only serious issues that Senator Joyce sought to address were those around consultation in these difficulties with live exports and Indonesia. But I do not recall the Howard government being particularly strong on consultation. I could think of countless examples of very poor behaviour and conduct. In fact, the very conduct that led the Howard government to going out of office was around its poor consultation—its very poor consultation on the Work Choices legislation, if I recall. That was the very point made the other day by Senator Minchin, I think, in his valedictory remarks.

So, if there is nothing more significant than these issues around his appraisal of poor consultation and the suggestion that Aust­ralia is turning into a vegan society, it is very hard to take Senator Joyce's comments seriously. But let me take a moment, since he was taking note of the answers to all of the questions to Senator Evans and Senator Ludwig in question time today, to appraise some of those others. I am glad to see that Senator Abetz is in the chamber at the moment, because apart from the predictable political rhetoric, as indeed Senator Evans highlighted in his response to the first question, Senator Abetz seems to suggest that the Gillard government, by setting priorities, is meant to achieve them within 12 months. We all know that priority issues such as climate change are never going to be achieved within 12 months. It is good to see that this government is attempting to deal with these issues, but suggesting that there should be any resolution within a 12-month period is just laughable.

The other priority issues raised by Senator Abetz were the mining tax and boat arrivals in Australia. I seem to remember that these have been problems for the former government. They are intractable problems, and the closest I have seen in policy terms to any resolution of these problems is indeed with the avenues being explored in the Malaysian solution. The Howard government liked to try and claim that it solved the boat problem. We know they did not. We know the number of boat arrivals that appeared over the term of the Howard government, and we know that that government did not find a satisfactory resolution. But to suggest that this is a problem that the Gillard government should have resolved within 12 months is just laughable.

We went through a range of other areas where the opposition asserted promises had been made and had not been met within 12 months. Well, I am sorry, but my assessment of today's question time, apart from the usual one, which is of tedious repetition by the coalition's questions committee, is: seriously, you are starting to look a pack of Froot Loops. Lemons have become much maligned, and the pack of Froot Loops that get up in question time in this place day in, day out cannot raise serious policy issues. This opposition really does highlight the concerns that have been raised time and time again with the Abbott leadership, which is: it is a policy-free zone. There are cheap rhetoric and questions about stabbings, killings and leadership change, when this very opposition is more vulnerable—far more vulnerable—on that issue than the government: four leaders in four years.

I would like to take this moment to remind the chamber of the last leadership change of the opposition. Climate change was the issue raised by Senator Abetz today. What was the demise of the former opposition leader about? What were the issues around which Mr Turnbull failed to continue as Leader of the Opposition? I seem to recall an enormous backflip. Do I recall an enormous backflip on climate change? I think I do. But then I also recall—and Senator Abetz will recall this too—completely atrocious behaviour in respect to Godwin Grech. To see suggestions and contemplations these days that Mr Turnbull might return as Leader of the Opposition are laughable in that context. (Time expired)