John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that the Prime Minister's Paid Parental Leave Scheme is unpopular. It is very unpopular amongst the Prime Minister's own supporters. The Prime Minister's Commission of Audit did not like it. The Australian Industry Group do not like it. They said it is gold-plated and should be abandoned. The Business Council of Australia do not like it. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry do not like it. Even the Institute of Public Affairs do not like it. But most embarrassingly of all, many members of the parliamentary Liberal Party do not like it and members of the National Party hate it.

Senators Williams, Smith, Bernardi, Boswell and O'Sullivan and, so far, lower house MPs Mr Hawke, Mr Christensen and Mr Chester have indicated they do not like it. They have said so. Even the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Truss, admitted on the ABC's Insiders program how unpopular the paid parental scheme is. He said:

I accept that there are people in our party room, and for that matter the Liberal party room, who are not that keen on the scheme.

But of all the opponents to the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, I do have to today particularly single out Senator Ian Macdonald. That is because Senator Ian Macdonald is not just against the Prime Minister's PPL scheme; he is against everything. This came about, I think, on 15 September last year—a day when Senator Macdonald said:

What should have been one of the proudest days in my life has turned into one of the worst.

Since that time, Senator Macdonald has turned opposing the Abbott government into an art form.

He has accused the Prime Minister's staff of running the government with obsessive, centralised control phobia. He accused unelected advisers in the Prime Minister's office of ignoring commitments and breaking promises to Queenslanders. In May of this year, Senator Macdonald accused his own government of displaying a lack of 'maturity' in keeping the Commission of Audit secret for too long and in not selling the federal budget properly. He attacked the deficit levy. He said that was unfair.