Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have a by-election on the weekend. We heard a fantastic speech from Senator Reynolds who went on about what an incredibly strong and brilliant candidate the Liberal Party has. I do not know Mr Hastie; I have not met Mr Hastie. Senator Reynolds' comments were quite inspirational, but you would have to ask yourself: if they have such a fantastic candidate in the seat of Canning, why are they copping 10 per cent swings? Who are the people voting against him? It is not the local candidate; the candidate is superb—that is their word, not mine. For such a superb local candidate, there is one person they are voting against, and that is the Prime Minister of Australia. The question is this: what is going to happen this week? Is Mr Turnbull going to put up or shut up? Is the Prime Minister so confident in his own position that he is prepared to spill? We kept hearing those others talking about Mr Simon Crean when it came to the free trade agreement. Maybe they need a Simon Crean themselves to step up and make it all happen. (Time expired)