Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would ask that Senator Colbeck check the scoreboard, because the scoreboard in Braddon told a completely different story. We know that Justine Keay is sitting as the member for Braddon. We know, as Senator Watt talked about, the great result in Longman. For what we've seen over the last few days, I have got three words that I want to use. Over Friday and the weekend, we had the capitulation. Then today we had the humiliation and what we're seeing is the consequence of this, a debilitating effect on the Australian government. There are so many policy issues that give cause to the effect of this, that are going to have an impact and that need to be highlighted. What also needs to be highlighted is the Prime Minister's role in how this has played out over the last 12 months and, indeed, the five years of a Turnbull-Abbott government.

When you look at energy policy, the fact is that they have been working on it for 12 months and the sole No. 1 aim of their energy policy was to get it through the backbench. That was their No. 1 aim. Everything else—families, Australians and workers—came a distant second, third and fourth. Their No. 1 aim was to come up with an energy policy and get it through their caucus room, and they failed at that. They have been working on it for 12 months and still we are no clearer today as to what their energy policy is. That's in this chamber, let alone what Australian people think of this—Australian families, Australian businesses and those workers who rely on and need energy for their workplace to create jobs and to support their families, which is so important. With this mob opposite, despite having been in government for five years and despite having been working on this policy for 12 months, here we are today none the wiser and seven votes off Peter Dutton becoming Prime Minister. This is the sad state of affairs. We saw the capitulation from the Prime Minister over the last four days. It is a really sad state of affairs for something that he has been saying was his signature policy. We sit here today none the wiser.

We also know the moves that he made at the end of last year and the beginning of this year to secure his leadership. He went down the path of getting rid of former Senator Brandis overseas so Senator Cormann could take over. He created the Home Affairs portfolio to keep Peter Dutton in check. Here we are, eight months on, and that has all blown apart. Peter Dutton is on the backbench. There's going to have to be a new home affairs minister. Every trick and manoeuvre that Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister made to keep his government and hold them together has been blown apart—and the actual losers in this have been the Australian people.

We know the government can't piece together an energy policy. The only thing that unites them is giving a tax cut to big banks and big business. That's the only thing that is keeping these guys together: the fact that they want to fork out money to big business and their corporate partners, because that is something that unites them. What we saw during the by-elections—what we saw in Braddon; what we saw in Longman—is that the Australian people rejected them. And the Australian people are increasingly losing faith in the government.

I think you've got to compare where they are when it comes to tax with where they are on energy. The backbench are so disunited when it comes to energy policy, but, when you compare that to where they are on tax policy, they are hand-over-fist eager to support big business and the big banks. Yet, when it comes to looking after Australian families and Australian businesses, ensuring that they can get ahead on energy policy, they just fight like cats. They are not putting the Australian people first when it comes to the important policy areas.

This comes to how debilitating this is for the government. It is absolute dysfunction and chaos when it comes to policy. We know that they're seven votes away from having Peter Dutton as Prime Minister. Imagine if an empty chair had run today. How many votes would an empty chair have got versus Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister?

The reality is that they are a government that are rudderless. The Australian people are seeing through them. They are a government now without an agenda. They don't have an agenda when it comes to the economy. They don't have an agenda when it comes to energy. On two of the most important issues that the government have been saying that they have been working to tackle now for months and years, they do not have an agenda. They have absolutely no direction from the Prime Minister, someone who has been humiliated through the course of today, and the government are suffering as a result.

The Australian people will come to the only conclusion that is necessary, and that's to send these guys to opposition, because that's the only way they are going to be able to sort out their problems. They have no faith in their ability to govern. They need to send them to opposition to sort out their problems. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.