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

You're here! How long are you going to be here, Senator Cormann? The question is: when is Senator Cormann going to join his great mate, Peter Dutton? When is he going to join him? And when is the end of this government going to actually happen? I hear that it's today. I hear that it's on again today. What we really should be doing is concentrating on the issues that are important for working people, not handing $80 billion to the big end of town while working people in this country need access to decent health systems and decent education systems. We want to rebuild the TAFE system in this country. That's where the money should be going—looking after working families, not $80 billion to the big end of town.

What do these amendments do? It would have kept Goldman Sachs in there. Why do we want Goldman Sachs in there? You've got the answer to that. You've only to got to look at the linkages between Goldman Sachs and this government. This is a government that really is dead. This government is dead. What we need is a government that can actually look after the best interests of Australians. The performance that Senator Cormann just put on demonstrates how bad this government is and how desperate it is. They're at each other's throats. We don't even know who's on the front bench. We don't even know if Senator Cormann will be there this afternoon. This is the correct decision. The big dummy spit that we've just seen from you, Senator Cormann, does you absolutely no justice. And I suppose you're sitting there looking at your phone now, seeing where the numbers are. They're falling away from Prime Minister Turnbull. We know that. We know this government is in such a bad state.

What Labor and Bill Shorten in government will focus on is health, education, the TAFE system and making sure that we look after working families in this country, that workers in this country can bargain with their employers and that we stop wage stagnation. These are the issues that are important for working people in this country, not your internal disputes, not your fights, not your squabbles and arguments that have destroyed this government. We understand how important unity is. What we stand for is a unified government, a unified Labor Party that can deal with the issues, not handing $80 billion of taxpayers' money to the big end of town on some crazy ideological theory that trickle-down economics will work. You guys have lost the plot. You opposed the banking Royal Commission. You want to cuddle up to Goldman Sachs. You want to cuddle up to all those big businesses that hand over money to you guys for your election campaign. I think you're going to be about a million and a half dollars down, because I don't think this Prime Minister, when he has been knifed completely, will be handing any money over to the coalition.

This is a desperate government. This is a government that has gone. This is a government that shouldn't be there any longer. We need a change of government in this country, because the performance we've seen at the highest levels of this government is that they've lost the plot. They've lost the plot completely. This was the best decision today for the Australian public, the best decision economically, the best decision so that when we are in government we can continue to look after the working people in this country and make sure that the big end of town pay their fair share of taxes and that they make a contribution to building a better society in this country, not a divided society. We've got a divided society under you lot. We've got a divided government. We've got a government incapable of governing. And the performance that Senator Cormann just put on demonstrates how desperate and how bad they are.