Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

What a contribution to the Senate that was. When I asked a question today of the senator representing the Prime Minister, it was in response to one of those policy announcements by the Prime Minister that they are now trying to run away from. The comments that I referred to were from the Treasurer of the Tasmanian parliament: Liberal member, Peter Gutwein. He raised his concerns. I quoted him when he said:

... each Tasmanian would need to pay $4,500 per year in additional tax.

That is not what I have said. That is what the Treasurer of Tasmania has said. So there is no doubt.

We are getting quite used to the fact that this Prime Minister has all these thought bubbles and they just sort of float past. He will see a bubble somewhere, grab it and say, 'That seems like a good idea,' but we know his ideas do not really stand the test of time. He will announce something in the morning and, by the evening, it will be off the drawing board, yet again. We know, from the contributions that have been made through the course of yesterday and today, that there is only one thing this Prime Minister has on his mind, and that is that he will do and say whatever it takes to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the Australian community, yet again. He will say one thing today but do something completely different tomorrow. We know, when he knifed Tony Abbott, that he did what he had to do. He did the deals within his caucus to get him that job. He has run away from the principled position that he kept espousing to the community, year in, year out. So we expect nothing different from him as Prime Minister, but the Australian people see things very differently now. They see that this government cannot be trusted. Whether it is Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull—