Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

What we have seen today is extraordinary—a government senator leaving the government benches on ideological grounds and on grounds of conviction and philosophy. What we have seen today really tells us something very important about this government, because Senator Bernardi's statement is emblematic of a government that is bitterly divided, a government that is coming apart at the seams and a government so riven with internal division it is more focused on its own issues than on the matters that matter most to Australians.

Senator Bernardi's resignation is not a cause of the deep divisions we now see on open display in the Senate chamber; it is a symptom. It is a symptom, because we know Senator Bernardi's view is far from an isolated one in this government We know that amongst those opposite he is one of many who believe that this government stands for nothing, that this government is led by a man who does not believe most of the things he is now forced to say and that this is a government that is riven with factionalism, dissent and distrust.

This resignation is a consequence of the failure of leadership by the Prime Minister, because the Prime Minister is leading a government that does not have an agenda and that does not have a philosophical framework. This is a government led by a man who has sold his soul for leadership—a prime minister so weak he is only allowed to remain in the job for as long as he betrays virtually everything he ever stood for. He is a man who used to believe in marriage equality; now he is not even allowed to grant his members the right to vote. He is a man who used to believe in an Australian republic; he is not even allowed to talk about it now. He is a man who said he understood the need to change the tax system so young people could actually aspire to homeownership; he is now not even allowed to talk about negative gearing. He is a man who came to the job vowing to end the three-word slogan who is forced to stand up every night, endlessly repeating the three-word slogans of his predecessor. And, of course, he is a man who used to believe that action on climate change was actually important. As has been said, I do not think Tony Abbott was much of a Prime Minister, but he was a hell of a lot better at being Tony Abbott than Malcolm Turnbull will ever be.

There are very few issues—in fact, there are almost no issues—upon which I agree with Senator Bernardi. But I do respect one thing: he does stand up for what he believes in. He is clearly no longer prepared to stomach the rank hypocrisy of a leader who clings to office by parroting views in which he does not believe.

But there is another lesson here for the Prime Minister: it is never enough. No matter how much you bend, no matter how many times you sell your soul to the hard Right of the party, no matter how often you betray everything you have ever stood for, it is never enough. That is what Senator Bernardi has today demonstrated. For every concession, another one will be demanded; when you cave in on that, they will just ask for another; and, when you cave in on that, another will be demanded of you.

So I say to those opposite and I say to the Prime Minister: time to call time on this farce. Why don't you do a little of what Senator Bernardi suggested. He said, 'Put principle back into politics.' Well, Australians await this from Malcolm Turnbull.