Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

, seriously, Senator Bilyk—'Fantastic results in the Super Saturday by-elections. The Liberal government is so successful.' I don't know how they can absolutely just erase five by-elections that happened only a month ago, when the Prime Minister himself made those by-elections on leadership. Quote me if I'm wrong, but it was about eight or nine weeks. We haven't seen anything like that. He couldn't wait to rush off to a double dissolution that cost the nation hundreds of millions of dollars instead of waiting another month, but he took eight or nine weeks to go to the Super Saturday by-elections. The father of the great candidate in Mayo got up on the TV that night and said, 'We're a bunch of nation-builders, us Downers.' I mean, seriously! It's gone from House of Cards to something that John Cleese would do. Seriously, this really is unbelievable. And there's Christopher Pyne telling us how great they've done in Longman. I've got to tell you: the last time I looked, your primary vote had a 2 in front of it, let alone that the candidate that you preselected was the Big Trev, who was going to be the next best thing.

Oh, my goodness me! Why don't you just do the right thing? To the backbench over there, while you're knifing your leader in the back, while you're giving Mr Tony Abbott, the member for Warringah, in the other three-ring circus, every piece of fuel to undermine your Prime Minister and to embarrass the politicians in this nation: it's very hard to walk to suburbia and to say the majority of us, especially on this side—well, most of this side. I'll leave that corner over there out. Most of us on this side are decent people, who went into politics to make a difference. What does the nation have to put up with? I don't know what's going to happen. I actually get out of bed each morning thinking to myself, 'Could it get worse?' And you know what? It can. It gets worse every time. So I'll give those on that side a bit of advice. By the time the sycophants and the snivellers all start doing the numbers to see who'll get a promotion if you do knife your Prime Minister—we've seen it all before when you got rid of Mr Abbott—do us one favour. Why don't you just tighten your belt? Why don't you pull your pants up a little bit, tuck it in, and take it to an election? If you're that great, as Mr Pyne said, and you're doing such a great job, take us to an election. Why don't you do something decent for the nation, because—my goodness me!—Australians do not deserve this dysfunctional, childish, immature government we've got at the moment? (Time expired)