Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator McAllister today relating to the Turnbull government.

Like the end of an empire, the death of a government is usually not pretty to watch. That, however, is what it seems we have been watching for the last few months on the front pages of newspapers, on the nightly news and in this chamber. People on the opposite side have been tearing themselves apart. In recent days that has intensified, as the blame and the finger-pointing and the gnashing of teeth continues about what went wrong in Queensland and whose fault it is. There are very different stories about whose fault it is, but the persistent theme coming through from many people speaking up very publicly—not respectfully in their party room but out there on Twitter, out there in the media—is that this is the fault of Mr Turnbull. It's starting to feel a little bit like that ominous feeling you get when you read Lord of the Fliesthat this is not going to end well.