Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise note to speak to the motion take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today, in particular to take note of answers to questions to Senator Abetz around the Prime Minister's leadership. I have to say that Mr Abbott's leadership is well on display out in Canning in the by-election. Just a few weeks ago, just to show how chaotic and dysfunctional the government is, at the start of this campaign, they were throwing any money at that campaign—$1 million the Liberals started to spend out in Canning, to shore up the job of the Prime Minister. Well, it just shows how bad they are at economics, because that $1 million somehow is already being spent, but they now want to get rid of the Prime Minister. So initially the Canning by-election was all about the Prime Minister's job, and now they have spent $1 million in Canning to shore up the Prime Minister's job—the same Prime Minister, the bloke, who they want to get rid of.

Mr Hastie is the Prime Minister's hand-picked candidate, parachuted into the seat of Canning. He cannot even name the main street in Armadale. He does not know it is called Jull Street. He cannot even name the main street.

Mr Abbott continues to behave more like the bullyboy behind the school shed than the Prime Minister of this country, and a swing in Canning on Saturday will be as a direct result of the Prime Minister's leadership. That is why they are so nervous about what is going on in Canning. A million dollars—imagine that! It is probably a record in terms of the spend at a by-election.

But what is wrong with the Prime Minister of the country? He seems to be able to manage to insult everyone. There was the appalling laughter we heard last week at the disgraceful joke told by Mr Dutton, and the comments about people's habits about keeping time, laughed at by the Prime Minister.

Mr Dutton got up and made an apology because somehow he was caught by a microphone. Any leader would say, 'When you make a mistake, own it.' But neither the Prime Minister nor Mr Dutton have stood up and apologised for those appalling comments they made. That, to me, demonstrates the arrogance of the Abbott government. It shows how out of touch they are that they think they can stand there at such an important occasion and make those appalling jokes. Who, really, do they think they are? Then it took another two days before Mr Dutton made that ridiculous apology—an apology because the microphone was on.

But Mr Abbott has a record of insulting people as well. What about the famous comment when he insulted Aboriginal people, particularly in Western Australia, for living in remote communities? He said that that was somehow a 'lifestyle choice'. What about when he showed his hopeless understanding of foreign investment when he said in answering a question at an economic conference in Melbourne that Australia owed its existence to former foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or scarcely settled great south land? That was another ignorant statement that refused to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but also showed his lack of understanding of foreign investment. And there have been numerous insults to women over the last couple of years. There was the famous one when he said,

What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on, are going to go up.

Is that what we expect of the Prime Minister of this country? Is it any wonder there are hardly any women in the cabinet? This is a man who is clearly out of touch.

Today, his leadership is under challenge not this time by the backbench but by his own hand-picked ministers. They are all starting to turn on him. At the end of the day, like the Prime Minister, there is only one job they are interested in protecting and that is their own. Firstly, they were shoring up Canning with $1 million to protect the Prime Minister. But now the ministers are all thinking, 'There is only one way to protect our jobs and that is to get rid of this Prime Minister.' (Time expired)