Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) 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 Urquhart today relating to processes for the selection of Liberal Party candidates.

This government is in absolute chaos. This government is an absolute rabble. This government is so busy carving each other up and doing deals to keep the extremists in parliament while kicking women out of parliament that the general public has got no faith in this government at all. This is a government that has lost the confidence of Australia. The party room is divided. Those in the Liberal party room are at each other's throats. This is a destructive government. No wonder they're being called mad. No wonder they are being called muppets. They are a divided government. There is a schism right through this government. This is the government that told people they were going to be a grown-up government. What has been grown-up about this government in the last period of time?

When the community wants action on health, when the community wants action on education, when the community wants action on infrastructure spending, when people want action on TAFE, when they want action on skills, when they want more apprenticeships for the kids, this government is too busy carving each other up. When regional communities need more spending in regional communities, this government supports cuts to penalty rates. Some of the poorest people, the working poor in this country, get hammered by this government. When housing is a huge issue, when young people are faced with a massive inequality, when the biggest single inequality issue for the future is housing, this government has got no policy on housing.

It is a pathetic government—a government that has run its race, a government that needs to go to an election as soon as possible and let the public decide what's in the interests of this country. It's not the coalition. It's not the division in the coalition. It's not the lack of decent policy. It's really a need for a change of government so a government can focus on the needs of this country. When you get the climate change deniers, the extremists in the coalition such as the member for Hughes, Craig Kelly, being supported by this Prime Minister to maintain his position when his views are clearly not in the long-term interests of this country, it shows you the depths that this government has sunk to.

I think one of the happiest people around will be the Labor candidate for Hughes, Ms Steinwall. She is looking at the key issues. All that Craig Kelly wants to do is go on Sky News at night with all the extremists and run the same rubbish on climate change, the same rubbish on global warming and the same rubbish on renewable energy. This is a government that doesn't get it.

I'll tell you what else they don't get: they don't get the need to make sure they are representative of this country. Fifty per cent of the population are women, and what does this government do? It kicks out a senator, Senator Gichuhi, who was enticed to come across to the Liberals to try and give them another number in the Senate. What happens to Senator Gichuhi? She gets kicked out. Senator Molan, a former general, gets kicked out, yet all of the extremists get kept in. All of the women get kicked out. Look at what's happening: Jane Prentice, the member for Ryan, Ann Sudmalis, the member for Gilmore, and Senator Gichuhi—women representatives in this place—are kicked out, and we see Craig Kelly kept in. I think that says it all about this government. They have lost the plot. They are an absolute rabble of a government. They have got no idea what the Australian public need. They are pathetic. (Time expired)