Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Payne) to a question without notice asked by Senator McCarthy today relating to the Member for Chisholm (Ms Banks).

I want to commence my remarks by acknowledging that Senator Payne is one of the few women on the front bench of the Liberal Party. Despite the fact that she's a childhood friend of my husband, I am very disappointed in the minister's answer today. The question that she was asked, which really was a test of her capacity in the role that she holds in this place representing the Minister for Defence, was a question which went to the matter as put:

Yesterday the Minister for Defence warned the now Independent member for Chisholm, Julia Banks, that she would 'face the consequences of her actions'.

And the question was:

Will the minister rule out retaliations against the now Independent member for Chisholm?

The minister should have been prepared for that very important question. She represents the Minister for Defence in this place. She should have been prepared—prepared to stand up for the women in her party, prepared for a question about the great shame of what's happening to women in the Liberal Party and the people whom they should be representing here in the government. The great shame is that she was not prepared, and her answer was:

I'm not aware of those statements.

What a joke! 'I'm not aware of those statements,' she said. How could she not be aware that the member for Chisholm walked away from the Liberal Party yesterday and took a spot on the crossbench because, as a woman, she says it's intolerable to remain within the Liberal Party?

They are a divided, dysfunctional government. Whatever they're doing when they show up for work here, there's no way you could characterise it as governing. In fact, for women in the Liberal Party—who found a small, quiet voice for a day in the words of Julia Banks yesterday—they are doing anything other than governing. They're not interested in looking after the Australian people. They've broken promises left, right and centre. They're more interested in their preselection games. They are a model of disunity. You can have the division between the Right and the Left or the pro-Morrison group and the anti-Morrison group. Pick a team. Or there is the pro-Dutton group and the anti-Dutton group, the pro-Turnbull group and the anti-Turnbull group, or the pro-Abbott group and the anti-Abbott group. But do you know what the biggest group they've got is? It is 'every man for himself, and let's leave the women behind', and that's what they're doing to create a culture of fear and intimidation that was so well articulated by Ms Banks yesterday.

This is what she said:

The gift of time and reflection has provided some clarity regarding the brutal blow against the leadership. Led by members of the reactionary right wing, the coup was aided by many MPs trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for their individual promotion, preselection endorsements or silence. Their actions were undeniably for themselves—for their position in the party, their power, their personal ambition—not for the Australian people who we represent; not for what people voted for in the 2016 election; not for stability, and disregarding that teamwork and unity deliver success.

Do you know what Mr Pyne, the member for Sturt, said? He was reported in an article by Katharine Murphy in which she describes what he said. This is what he said about a woman he calls his friend—so God help us for what he says about people he doesn't like, like the rest of us! This is what he said, and it was described as 'caustic':

He said she would have to "take the opprobrium"—

that's the word he used—

associated with her decision and "bear the consequences of her decision".

If you've got enough time, Google the word 'opprobrium' and see what it means—the shame, the vilification, the attacks. That is what the Minister for Defence of the nation of Australia said about a woman in his own party: 'She should get ready to take the vilification.' That is why Julia Banks took a spot on the crossbench—because this Liberal Party, which seeks to govern the nation, cannot govern itself and certainly is not supporting women. In fact, it's doing the exact opposite. It's ditching them and it's pushing them under water, as they all scramble for their own success at the cost of the country. There's one picture I want to celebrate today: the picture by Alex Ellinghausen, which shows— (Time expired)