Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz, from the sidelines, talks about incompetence. If anyone has seen incompetence, it is the ministerial team in this chamber. The most incompetent has been Senator Johnston. Only a whisker behind him is Senator Abetz, who has delivered on absolutely nothing that he promised before the election. That is the nature of this coalition: promise much, deliver nothing, and just lie to the Australian public. It is about lying to the Australian public. That resolution has been passed by all parties in the South Australian parliament. It goes to the issue of lies. It goes to the issue of trust.

And when Senator Johnston made that infamous remark about honest, hardworking, highly skilled Australians not being able to build a canoe, he sat there thinking he had done a great thing—that it was fantastic. He sat smirking, he sat laughing and he was full of arrogance. But the look of horror behind him was good to see because people knew that this was an issue that South Australians held dearly. They want a defence industry in South Australia and this incompetent minister has not delivered despite giving a promise to South Australians that the submarines would be built in South Australia.

This is a government that has come to power based on lies. This is a government that cannot be trusted. This is a government that is incompetent. And this is a government that contains members and senators from South Australia that do not have any backbone, that do not have any capacity to stand up for their own state. They will not stand up for the Australian defence industry, they will not stand up for the families in South Australia, they will not stand up for the skills and they will not stand up for the capacity of the industry in South Australia. They are weak kneed, they are jelly backed and they are incompetent. Where are the people standing up in South Australia for jobs in South Australia? It is not the weak kneed South Australians senators in this place. This minister should go.