Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

We know it's not been a good week for the coalition, but this really puts the icing on the cake. This is a leader in this place who has actually argued for tax cuts for the banks, has argued against a royal commission into the banks and has supported the banks all the way along. And now this government is in so much trouble and in terminal decline. We understand that Senator Cormann is committed. This is Senator Cormann's signature economic policy down the drain, like this government is down the drain. This is a bad week for the Australian public because this government is collapsing, and we need a government that can actually get decent economic policies, decent financial policies and look after working people. And that performance we've just seen from Senator Cormann demonstrates how much trouble this government is in.

It is only a few weeks ago that Ross Greenwood said to Senator Cormann:

The question is, really, if the public does not, with a Royal Commission on, like the idea of handing out big tax cuts to banks and others, why on earth would the Government persist with this?

What did Senator Cormann say? What did the Leader of the Government in the Senate say? He said, 'Because it's the right thing to do.' Talk about wibble-wobble. He said:

Because it is the right thing to do by working families around Australia. If we put businesses in Australia at a competitive disadvantage with businesses in other parts of the world by imposing significantly higher—

taxes—

then that puts workers here in Australia at a competitive disadvantage with workers in other parts of the world.

So it was the right thing to do; then it was changed. This is a government that just cannot keep a policy for two hours. After two hours, their policies are changing, like the front bench is changing. We don't even know who's on the front bench in this government. We don't know what—