Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly want to take note of the answer by Senator Linda Reynolds to our questioner, Senator O'Neill. I actually happened to be sitting down in front of Sky News the day it happened and I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, this is probably worth watching a couple of times,' because the two-step, double-pike performance was extraordinary. But it made me cast my mind back to something that the Hon. Peter Costello said way back in 2015:

Then there were the ambitious members of the Government, woodchucks desperate for advancement. They repeat everything, real or imagined—

in an effort to please the minister or the Prime Minister. There we had it, in my view. Instead of just saying, 'Oh my goodness, I think I've stuffed that one up,' and answering the question like a normal person would in the street, we had a minister who attempted to act as if nothing had happened. It was abundantly clear to the interviewer and to the TV audience that it was not a very good performance. It's been variously described as 'untidy', 'a train wreck', 'catastrophic' and the like. But it goes right to the heart of the difference between this side of the chamber and that side of the chamber. We actually do believe people are entitled to be paid more than the minimum wage, and people are entitled to, I believe, an increase in Newstart and an increase in the minimum wage.

There are many employers, reputable people, starting a business who simply ring up a government instrumentality and say: 'What is the minimum wage? I want to be legal, honest and above board. What's the minimum wage? I'll pay that.' If that is not reflective of what people need to have as a reasonable standard of living to pay their increases in their utility bills or their outgoings in education and health, then we, as a country, need to do something about that. This government has spent most of its time trying to drive down worker representation rights so they can't actually achieve a decent wage outcome through, dare I say it, a union. At the same time, they've tried to put the parameters of the economy such that it's extremely hard for increases to come through the system. We need to change that.

Senator Reynolds went from decrying the statement of her senior minister, Minister Cormann, to agreeing with it in the space of 25 or 30 seconds. That's quite an extraordinary achievement, really. It's more reflective of the chaos that's been this government—the 45th Parliament. We're in the shadows of it. We're probably not going to see it go on too much longer than the weekend. And we know this: there have been a number of changes in the prime ministerial position. More importantly, in my view, there have been an inordinate number of changes in the ministerial positions right down to the last reshuffle. It has not been good for this country or for any government to cope with that number of changes.

I'll place it firmly on the record here that I think Senator Reynolds is a hardworking, conscientious senator from Western Australia but, I believe—this is only my view, and I'm not shy about this—has perhaps been promoted a little bit in front of her capabilities or level of experience. That's what came through to me in that interview. She did not listen carefully. She wasn't aware of what the whole interview was about and she made a pretty fundamental mistake. It's not career-ending. It's not career-limiting, but you've got to be grown-up enough to just own up to it. Face up to it and say: 'There was a stuff-up. I made a goose of myself.' Own up to that and then move on. Learn from it. To observe, 'Nothing to see here,' and, 'I didn't do anything,' is really not the way. Hopefully, if our side of the chamber is correct, they'll have a reasonably long period in opposition to contemplate how they'll do things better next time. And I wish Senator Reynolds well in her future endeavours in the chamber. I've worked with her over a number of committees and I think she's a very conscientious and valuable member of the Senate. Hopefully, she won't have the opportunity of repeating the mistakes she made on that catastrophic, untidy TV interview with David Speers—who, coincidently, must be the most underrated journalist around because he keeps getting people to make elementary mistakes in full view of the camera.