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

I would like to join with other colleagues to say thank you to the Clerk of the Senate—I am sure that this last question time would have been quite memorable for her! But it is the festive season, so we have to talk about the gift that we have from Senator Brandis that keeps giving over and over again. I think it is probably the Christmas gift of all Christmas gifts, because what we have seen from Senator Brandis since he became the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Attorney-General is a reinforcement of how out of touch he really is. He is incompetent and we know he misleads—some people may even say he lies. The amount of gaffs keep building up day after day when it comes to the leader of the government in this place.

It was not that long ago that Mr Turnbull knifed Tony Abbott, and he did that while giving a commitment and a promise to the Australian people that he would lead an agile, innovative, 21st-century government. Well, we have seen from the leader of the government in this place anything but that. I would not go as far as Senator Watt did to actually make any comments about the good senator's dress sense, but I do recall seeing the photo of that jumper, and it still haunts me! But what we will talk about today is the fact that the Prime Minister gave a commitment to the Australian people that he was going to be better than Mr Abbott. But what we have seen now is that it is not just those on this side of the chamber who have lost confidence in Senator Brandis but also those on his own side.

People in the community are asking me, 'How many more stuff-ups will this take before Mr Turnbull actually sacks Senator Brandis?' We know that that is not going to happen, because it is the spirit of Christmas. We know that the Prime Minister will wait until he is out of parliament, and then he will do what he has done before, and that is he will have a reshuffle. And, yes, we have seen already that Senator Brandis is more than willing to throw his former colleagues under the bus, because it was only this week when it all unravelled—the rorting, the dishonesty around what happened in Western Australia and how the Attorney-General tried to insist that the Solicitor-General go easy when putting his case in relation to the Constitution and the taxation that was in question. We know that there are still a lot of questions in the Senate inquiry into the $300 million. It is not $300—we are talking about $300 million. That has really drawn Senator Brandis's integrity and honesty into question, so I am looking forward to that.

We know that what he wanted to do, and what he did was throw Joe Hockey under the bus—that is what he did with his colleague. When I was out on the doors this morning I was celebrating the fact that it was almost 5½ months ago that I came into this chamber and said, 'Adios, amigos' to the three Tasmanian amigos in this place. In the spirit we are in now, with the festive season, I was going to bring my sombrero into the chamber, but, out of respect, because I knew you were going to be in the chair, Deputy President Lines, I did not want to do that today.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the Prime Minister will have a reshuffle. It might not be before Christmas, but I suspect it will be, because it will allow the new ministers to come to terms with their new responsibilities. I wanted to say 'Adios' to George Brandis as well.

I am sorry, Madam Deputy President, I know my phone is not supposed to be ringing in here, so I had it on silent, but I have got a call coming in from London. I do not think it is for me—it is for George Brandis, and it is from Alexander Downer—