Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an amazing lack of answers from Senator Payne, who represents Minister Pyne, to the questions I asked her in question time today, and that's what we're taking note of. I feel Senator Sterle's pain and frustration about this, because on this side we're all feeling that. What are you guys doing? You've been in power for nearly five years. You've still got no idea of what to do. Seriously, life is not a dress rehearsal, over there. You're supposed to be running the country. I'm still waiting for good government to begin—still waiting for it.

One of the questions I asked today was: 'Minister Pyne said that there is overwhelming support in the party room for the National Energy Guarantee. Was Minister Pyne correct?' Well, I suppose he may well have been at that point in time, but, by this afternoon, we know that the Prime Minister made a statement to say that they're taking the NEG off the board for now, they're taking it off the table for now, because he couldn't get enough support on his own side. They've got the numbers in the House, and he couldn't get enough support! I have to say, if ever I've seen a government that is in disarray, that is divided, that has no unity about it, this is the one.

I feel sorry for those on the other side, because the National Energy Guarantee policy has changed so many times. It seems like it's not even day by day but hour by hour or minute by minute. It would be really hard for anyone to keep up with, so I do feel a bit of sympathy for them. But then we've got the Prime Minister trying so hard to ward off a leadership challenge and keep some of those in his party happy that he's given up on everything to help make them happy. I call that wimpish, really wimpish. We need a Prime Minister who will stand up, who has the courage of his convictions. But we've seen this on so many issues with Mr Turnbull. He did a backflip in regard to same-sex marriage and he's done a backflip in regard to a number of other things. Now it's: 'Oh, we'll take it off the table.' So we wasted most of last week in this place having a debate on it, only to have it taken off the table. What a joke! What a way to run the country! I'm not sure what plan he intends to go with in the future—if Mr Turnbull remains Prime Minister, and of course that's very iffy. We might have Mr Pitt's plan or we might have Mr Kelly's plan or we might actually end up with a whole new Prime Minister and have Mr Dutton's plan.

We heard today—I think it was The Australian that mentioned it—that many MPs called Mr Dutton through the weekend, supported Mr Dutton and asked him to become the leader. It's pretty interesting to see The Australian writing that sort of thing. We even had Mr Abbott on the weekend speaking to some Young Liberal members—in Tasmania, as I understand it—and saying he was entertaining the idea of serving under a Dutton government. Mr Abbott was in Launceston on the weekend talking to Young Liberals and actually talking to them about serving under a Dutton government. It doesn't really matter what those on the other side say, because we can all tell there is going to be a leadership challenge. Even though Mr Turnbull has taken this off the table for now, his position is still under threat. Christopher Pyne said yesterday:

There are some people who don't support the current leader and that is quite obvious.

I would say it's very obvious.

We've got those on the backbench of the government playing their own little games with energy policy, not worrying about the people of Australia, but the people of Australia know all too deeply that, under this Prime Minister, a profound energy crisis has emerged which has led to a collapse in confidence in our energy system. They've seen power bills go up, not just for households but for businesses. How can those on the other side say they support businesses when they're so happy to put this aside because it's all got a bit too hard?

One of the things that really amazed me in all this discussion— (Time expired)