Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. As I was saying the other day, this government is led by its very own Kermit the Frog, the Prime Minister. As I was also saying the other day, the most famous Kermit the Frog song is 'It's not easy being green', and that is the position which this Prime Minister finds himself in. It is not very easy being very green in the modern LNP—the Liberal Party or the National Party. Once upon a time, this Prime Minister paraded himself as a bit of a green. He believed in climate change. He believed in taking action on climate change. But he has found that it is not very easy being green if he wants to be Prime Minister.

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, there are a few other new Kermit the Frog songs that he could sing as well. He could sing 'It's not easy being pro marriage equality'. That is something else that he had to abandon—something that was a really long-held belief of his, which he had to walk way from in order to retain the prime ministership. The song could also be 'It's not easy being sensible about refugees'. Just this week he was led, yet again, by his appalling immigration minister, Peter Dutton, to another ridiculous policy about the treatment of refugees rather than doing something sensible about resettling people from the hell holes of Manus and Nauru. The song could in general just be 'It's not easy being moderate in the Liberal Party'. The Prime Minister, despite apparently being a moderate, has somehow found that it is not easy to remain being a moderate. And even just this week the comments made by one of his backbench members, Russell Broadbent, have also shown how hard it is to be a moderate in the Liberal Party these days.

This Kermit the Frog of a Prime Minister has been upstaged. The show has been taken over by his support acts. We have got our very own Fozzie Bear, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton. I was reminding myself what it was about Fozzie Bear—