Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I too look at the people in the gallery who have joined us today and the many millions of Australians who are watching what's going on in this parliament. What they're watching is a national embarrassment. It's a disgrace. It's utterly shameful.

We haven't had a stable government in this country for a decade now. I've got a 10-year-old boy, and he's seen half a dozen different prime ministers. We have politicians in this joint who are far more concerned about themselves and their own self-interest than about governing the country. While the Liberal Party have been tearing themselves apart, 100 per cent of New South Wales is in drought; the Great Barrier Reef is on the brink of collapse; there are floods in India; we've got a 12-year-old girl setting herself alight in Nauru; and we've got kids who are in a catatonic state because they've given up hope, locked away in those offshore hellholes. And what's the Liberal Party doing? They're focusing on vengeance and on payback. They're focusing on themselves.

We've got people who can't afford to pay their medical bills right now. We've got young people who are being priced out of an education. There are 100,000 people in this country who are homeless. There are women who fear going home tonight because one woman a week is killed at the hands of a violent partner. And what have we got? We've got this spectacle, this disgrace! You should be ashamed of yourselves. We have people across the country who are suffering, and look what you're doing. You are so focused on yourselves that you have forgotten what the country elected you to do, and that is to govern—for them, not for you. You don't deserve to govern; you deserve to be turfed out. That's what you deserve.

You walked away from climate change. You walked away from an energy policy. You ditched your economic plan. And why? Because those dinosaurs inside your party room held the Prime Minister to ransom, and he didn't have the guts to take them on. And what has he done instead? What has your party done? We now have the prospect of Peter Dutton or Scott Morrison as the next Prime Minister of this country. Things are pretty crook right now, but they're going to get a hell of a lot worse. I fear for those people in this country who have come from overseas, because we're going to have an election that focuses on race, that fans the flames of racism and division. That's what's coming right now. We're going to have an election campaign in which people are divided and neighbour is pitted against neighbour because you haven't got the guts to stand up and lead in this country.

People have a right to be angry. I understand why people feel angry. Of course they're angry. We haven't seen investment in infrastructure. Our roads are choking. We haven't got a waste policy. Energy prices are going up. Of course they're angry. Young people can't afford to buy their own home. We've got young people who can't afford to get an education. No wonder people are feeling crook. No wonder they want to turf this mob out. But, let me tell you: the answer is not your neighbour; it's not the person who's come from overseas; it's not the Italian or the Greek or the African; it's not someone who doesn't share your religion. It's this mob right here that you should look at who are doing the bidding of the big end of town and who are more interested in looking after their corporate mates than they are in looking after the people who elected them to this place.

And there was one person in this place who was more unhappy than those members sitting over there, and it was Senator Hanson. Do you know why Senator Hanson was unhappy? She was unhappy because she has seen a party adopt her policies rather than stand up to her. Rather than taking a stand against One Nation, the Liberal Party are becoming just like them: a bunch of anti-immigrant, climate deniers with no economic plan. You are a disgrace. You should hang your heads in shame. Make no mistake: we are going to take it right up to you mob in the next election. To all those people who are listening right now who feel scared—