Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just have to pick up on the words of Senator Ruston. She talks about 'stupid, unnecessary, unimportant'. That is exactly what we have seen on show from this government throughout the week: stupid stunts, unnecessary actions and failures by them in both the House and the Senate to govern. It is just another expression of what a divided and incompetent government we are having to suffer. What an absolute mess—12 months in and the whole show is more akin to a Marx Brothers comedy than it is to a competent and effective government. The fact that they came into this house yesterday with absolutely nothing worth talking about tells us everything we need to know about a government that has not lost its sense of direction, because the fact is it never had one.

It is a completely unacceptable reality that we are saddled with a government that is swimming in treacle in the dark, with no sense of purpose or direction. We all know why that is happening. It is down to the fact that the Prime Minister cannot govern even his own party, let alone this nation. This morning, we hear that this government is planning to waste $160 million on the proposed plebiscite on marriage equality—and that is a conservative estimate; there are estimates of up to $250 million out there. It is nothing more than a glorified opinion poll that will not even be binding. More than that, an additional $15 million is to be wasted in order to fund hate speech out of the public purse. I bet that went down really well in a party room that is hopelessly divided on this issue. We have already had one senator from the other side saying that he wants absolutely nothing to do with a plebiscite that can only cause hurt and damage. Why is it remotely right that we should engage in a process that has all the potential to injure people in this manner?

What we are seeing with this government is a test of leadership, and the Prime Minister has failed it on this score absolutely miserably. What this mess of their own making illustrates is that we have a divided government and a Liberal Party at war with themselves. Let us face it: they could not even manage to keep their team in the building on Thursday of the last sitting week. Yesterday we had to watch them filibuster for four hours. Today, in the answers from Senator Brandis, we did not hear anything about flags—I suppose we can be thankful for that small mercy. We did not hear any talk about the Top of the Pops, or was it The Proms? We did not hear anything about that. We did not even hear anything about unknown or unnameable candidates in unknown or unnameable towns. So I suppose he stuck to the topic—at least that was something.

But the problem is that this is a government that is completely out of touch with the nation. What makes this fiasco even worse is when we put it in scale, when we understand that the government's mental health program that was recently announced has funding to the amount of $192 million—that is it. So let us get a sense of perspective. This is a government that wants to spend $192 million to support ways of improving the nation's mental health and $160 million on a plebiscite to provide non-binding answers to a question that the parliament could settle this week.

The government's definition of a plebiscite is a very interesting one. What is their definition of a plebiscite? It seems to be that it is a situation where a Prime Minister, following a near-death political experience, has been returned with a majority of one, then laughably demands that he has a mandate to push through a policy forced upon him by part of his party who put him where he is and who have publicly said they will defy the outcome and vote any way they like regardless. It seems that the Prime Minister thinks that this is leadership in action. If this PM had one ounce of leadership, he would let the parliament do its job and have a free vote, decide this matter, rather than the tactic of delay, delay, and appeasing those inside his own— (Time expired)