Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I shall be brief. I'm old enough to remember the days when we all used to laugh at the Italians. We said how often they changed their government, how often they changed their leaders and what a stupid country that was—how irresponsible and what a lousy case of democracy. Tomorrow, it would seem, an elected Prime Minister will not make it to his full term. An elected Prime Minister, I believe—seeing that the people of Australia elected him, whether it be Prime Minister Shorten or Prime Minister Turnbull—was elected by the people and should serve his or her full term in government. I'm sorry that that will not happen, because tomorrow, it would appear, we'll now have either a Prime Minister Dutton or a Prime Minister Morrison or a Prime Minister Pyne or a Prime Minister Bishop. They're all doing the numbers. I'm told they're all doing the numbers.

I will concede that I criticise this government and I vote against this government. I think what they did in the other place today was a bloody disgrace. They have shut down democracy and the workings of the place. I agree with Senator Cameron sometimes, with his 'rabble'. They're a rabble. They're a terrible rabble at times, and they are at the moment. We do not know who's going to be in the ministry tomorrow. We don't know who we're going to ask questions of. I'll concede a bit to Senator Hanson: the government obviously must still be doing some sort of work somewhere. I guess there's a chance we may have a Prime Minister Turnbull if they can't find the 43 signatures. I still say, though, that I believe a government is the government. It should not be up to us, Senator Wong. It should not be up to us to decide when they should go to the polls and when they should have an election.