Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Disability and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and the Public Service (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by Senators Cameron and Sterle and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) today relating to the Prime Minister (Mr Morrison).

I have to say the responses to questions today really go to the nature of the muppet show known as the Morrison government—that is, answers that deal with questions related to the Prime Minister's fundamental lack of judgement and competence. It's really no wonder that the Prime Minister chose to use the words 'muppet show' to describe his own government, because in actuality words to this effect were used to describe his performance during his time at Tourism Australia.

What we've seen from revelations only this week is that not only was the decision to dismiss Mr Morrison from the independent agency 'unanimous by the board and the minister' but the Auditor-General described the Prime Minister's time at the helm of the agency as having 'numerous anomalies and concerns over contracts worth $184 million'. These decisions reflect a serious breach of procurement guidelines and they are significant indictments on his judgement. They show that the current Prime Minister is frankly not suited to the role. He is unable to manage an independent agency, and he has now been promoted to run the nation, regardless of the fact that he has shown an appalling lack of judgement.

There is plenty of evidence around the lack of judgement in his time at Tourism Australia. We heard that today in the question that was asked by Senator Cameron to Senator Cormann today. The fact is that the entire Tourism Australia board, former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tim Fischer, the former Minister for Small Business and Tourism, Fran Bailey, and former Prime Minister Howard refused to step in and save Mr Morrison, because he was incompetent. He lacks judgement.

It's not only in his time in Tourism Australia. He has been the Prime Minister since 24 August. What has happened in that time? What has he shown about his competency and judgement? Obviously, we've got the issue that he raised about moving the Australian embassy. That was an issue he raised that has overwhelmingly backfired on the Prime Minister. He raised that issue, an important issue, just to try to score political points in the by-election in the seat of Wentworth.

Yesterday, we had the issue around Foodbank. His own colleagues came out against him on Foodbank. He's had to backflip—thankfully—on cutting that funding. He has also now been caught out around the briefing he gave the former Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, when he sent him off to Indonesia to represent the government. He got caught out telling a different story than Mr Turnbull told. He had to backtrack on that. And we have his bus—his bus that is going around the country, but he's not on it. He gets on and off just for the photo opportunity. He's flying around. And, of course, who could forget the hip-hop song that he had to come out and apologise for: 'Scott Morrison removes cringe-worthy social media video over inappropriate rap lyrics.'

I've just sat down here and gone through some of the things that this Prime Minister has done that he's had to backflip on, that he's had to apologise on. There are very many serious issues that the Prime Minister just doesn't get. He's got an appalling lack of judgement, not only around the Great Barrier Reef and the grant that was given—he's taken responsibility for that as well—but we all know that he was Minister for Social Services for less than 10 months. He really must go. (Time expired)