Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

As debate in the nation's parliament and around the country has shown, this government has not a woman problem but a man problem. In rising to take note of the answers to the questions asked by Senator McCarthy, I note that the kind of chaos that besets this government is very, very clear. As Julia Banks characterised it:

My sensible, centrist values, belief in economic responsibility and focus on always putting the people first and acting in the nation's interest have not changed. The Liberal Party has changed, largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing, who talk about and to themselves rather than listening to the people.

When I look at those people in the coalition and in the government, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see that, at the core of those debates, perhaps with the exception of Senator Fierravanti-Wells, are the reactionary right in the men of the Liberal Party. You are creating chaos in your own government and across the nation. The problems you beset this nation with are vast, deep and important to the nation's wellbeing. The question I asked in the Senate this afternoon was about the National Energy Guarantee and about policy. But, because of the climate change deniers among you, you are unable, as a party, to land simple policy propositions in the national interest. You've changed your minds, I don't know how many times, in trying to come up with a climate change and energy policy. Why? Because your internal processes and your leadership are absolute chaos. Why is that the case? You sacked one prime minister in Malcolm Turnbull, who had to sack Tony Abbott before that, and now we've got Scott Morrison. Why? Because you cannot put together a coherent and substantial agenda for this nation in the national interest. You have no coherence as a government or as a party anymore. As Senator McCarthy's questions to Senator Payne rightly went to, when will Mr Morrison do this nation a favour, do his MPs a favour—as one coalition MP purportedly put it to Patricia Karvelas—and put you out of your misery and have an election?

What this nation needs is a plan to fix our schools and hospitals, to ease pressure on household budgets, to stand up for workers, to invest in cheaper, cleaner energy and to build a strong economy that works for all. Yet, on all of these questions, all those opposite can do is to send us into a quagmire of inattention to the real needs of the Australian people. This government is so self-absorbed and so out of touch that it cannot land a real punch on any major policy initiative that this nation needs in terms of leadership and governance. Take a look at what's happening in our nation's schools. You haven't delivered fair funding to the public school sector in Australia. You have absolutely failed, in your inaction on climate change policy and energy policy in this nation, to do anything that is easing pressure on household budgets. You've been in government for five years, and still you've changed your policy minds some five times on this question. So, senators—through you, Madam Deputy President—we have a government that is divided, out of touch and only working on behalf of very narrow vested interests, including those inside its own party, as Julia Banks's remarks to the lower house yesterday made clear. We cannot stand for any more of this chaos—