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

He absolutely is, Senator Farrell. He's certainly right that the Prime Minister is the problem. If Senator Brandis had any respect—just a skerrick of respect—for the partnership that they pretend to the Australian people exists between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, he would hardly be describing Mr Barilaro's comments as 'the dribblings of some obscure politician'. I'm offended for the Nationals party. My heart is fairly breaking for the Nationals—what they've had to put up with in being the doormats to the federal government, to the Liberal Party, walking all over them. They suffered that terrible experience of a vote decline up in Queensland. They were going to take out the Palaszczuk government. They were all set to deliver for regional Queensland. Sadly, they came fourth in the seat of Rockhampton. It's been a disaster for them. The Attorney-General should have been a little more generous in his comments. Instead, he describes not the deputy premier of New South Wales—because Ms Berejiklian's not around—but the premier of the biggest state of Australia right now, Mr Barilaro, who doubled down today in his comments and said, 'Let my comments stand.' Let his comment stand, and let Mr Turnbull wrap himself up into a little ball and put himself under the Christmas tree of every Australian and say: 'I give up. I know I'm doing a bad job. I'm going to give you a Christmas present. I'm going to take the pressure off you. I'll give you a great turn. We'll have somebody else.' But who else? And Mr Barilaro said that too.

Well, I haven't got any idea about who else, and no-one over there has. There's no unity. There is no functionality. There is constant disarray. We've had, just in the last half-hour, a move to suspend standing orders yet again. That only happens when a government's not functioning well. Last week they had one to actually bring legislation on. Today they changed their mind halfway through the day because things weren't looking too good. 'Oh, no, we'll take it off.' That's what we see here every single day from this government: disunity, dysfunction and chaos—the three hallmarks that mark them out.

I'm very concerned about this sort of behaviour, which would be a disaster for any organisation outside this parliament—and certainly a disaster for a small business. I grew up in one; I know what it's like. If a small business ran their small business the way this government runs the parliament, a lot more people in Australia would be unemployed, and that's hard to say considering how bad the government are doing in that regard.

I also want to take note of some of the comments about the ROC. The problem with this government is that, when they're not focusing on the infighting and the division, they're attacking what is the only other major source of support for the Australian community—that is, they're after the unions at every single chance they get.