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

Labor is of the view that it will support the Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Restructure Roll-over) Bill 2016. I want to go through some of the issues that come from this bill. In the other place, the member for Fraser, Dr Andrew Leigh, opened his contribution on the bill by saying that if you ask a psychologist what 'cognitive dissonance' is they will speak of a situation where a person holds contradictory beliefs or ideas, or acts in a manner that contradicts their stated beliefs or values. As soon as you deal with that definition, you know exactly whom the member for Fraser is talking about—it is our current Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister is absolutely inflicted with cognitive dissonance. He actually holds contradictory beliefs to his stated values. The key to a case of cognitive dissonance is a sense of discomfort that comes from contradictory actions or holding contradictory beliefs at the same time. Can you imagine the sense of discomfort that Prime Minister Turnbull has every time he looks at what the far-right of the Liberal Party forces on him, this weak Prime Minister, this Prime Minister with no backbone, this Prime Minister who will not stand up for what he says are his beliefs, a Prime Minister who has sacrificed his values and principles to become the Prime Minister of this country and is now led by the nose by the worst elements of the Liberal Party, the extremists in the Liberal Party.

The coalition has a leader who believes in different things to what he is actually out there talking about. Well, we think that is the position, because do we ever know now what the current Prime Minister believes in. He does not believe in much, except that he had a great belief in becoming Prime Minister. That is where he has headed and he has sacrificed his values, sacrifices his principles, and sacrificed since long-held beliefs to become Prime Minister. He is a weakened person, a weak Prime Minister, and certainly is not fit to be the leader of this country.

This bill clearly demonstrates the coalition's ready embrace of ideas and actions that contradict one another. On this side we welcome the measure as it allows small business to restructure with greater ease. That is why we support this particular bill. Restructuring is important—being nimble. We hear much about being nimble. We hear much about restructuring. We hear much about flexibility. But the Prime Minister we have talks about these things and does nothing. He is all talk and no action. I remember that great saying from former Prime Minister Keating. It is about being all tip and no iceberg. If anyone was all tip and no iceberg it is the current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

It would be remiss of me to shy away from condemning this government for its failure to address the broader picture regarding capital gains tax. Again, the Prime Minister stood up and said, 'Look, we don't want to be intimidated by fear campaigns.' He actually knifed the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, on the basis that he was negative and could not maintain a polling position in this country. He knifed the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, on the basis that he would lead a different government, a government that listened to the public, a government that would treat the public as having some common sense. He said the public debate in this country would change because it would be about facts, that it would be about the issues. He said the public debate would not be about three-word slogans. But what do we have from the current Prime Minister? We have four-word slogans—