Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

nator POLLEY () (): I rise to make a contribution to this MPI and the ongoing crisis in leadership engulfing the Morrison government. We have a Prime Minister who does not know the meaning of the word 'leadership', let alone having the ability to show any. What we had from Senator Abetz previously is a speech you hear over and over and over again from him. The reality is: there's one thing about the fact that Morrison won the federal election. Yes, it's true; the Australian people elected him as Prime Minister, but what the Australian people have found during this crisis across the country, with state after state being engulfed in fires, is that they do not have trust or faith in this Prime Minister. He has the ability to put people offside. Normally a Prime Minister grows in stature during a national crisis, but we've seen a very arrogant Prime Minister and a very indecisive Prime Minister. We've seen a Prime Minister who has no empathy, a man who is okay with being the Prime Minister but unwilling to execute the office with any semblance of responsibility.

Australia has a Prime Minister who does not believe that ministers should be held accountable to the highest standards. He was unwilling to do the right thing and stand down Senator McKenzie, the 'minister for sports rorts'; he was unwilling to act. Then, when he decided that he was going to have an investigation because he didn't like—and wanted to ignore—the independent Auditor-General's report, he got his former chief of staff, who heads up the Prime Minister's department, to investigate. That shows the integrity of this Prime Minister: 'We'll get one of our own to investigate one of our own.' It was quite clear that the Australian community did not accept and would never accept Senator McKenzie's rorting of the grants program when she was the Minister for Sport; it would never pass the pub test. I know the Liberals have been very quick to say, 'This happens all the time in elections; you see and you hear the same rhetoric,' but there is a very stark difference between election commitments and a Commonwealth government grants program.

What we have seen from the Prime Minister is that he has in fact exposed himself to the Australian people. We have seen his pattern of behaviour. The Australian people have seen him, and they do not have any faith in him. Not only was he slow to react to the bushfire crisis, showing poor judgement by going overseas on a holiday during that crisis, but he failed to address the shonky behaviour and the rorting from the former Minister for Sport, and there are also still questions hanging over Mr Taylor.

It's quite clear that the Prime Minister is both an arrogant and a shonky Prime Minister who is leading a shonky government who are not accountable and who believe that they're above everyone else in this country. He does not take responsibility for the lack of transparency from his the ministers. We have seen that Mr Morrison, during the last election, was pretty good at marketing—pretty slick, really—but he's now demonstrated very clearly to the Australian people who he really is.

The fire crisis had gripped our country, and it was horrendous. We saw our firefighters and volunteers putting their lives on the line and, unfortunately, some losing them. We had our overseas friends, neighbours and allies come to assist us on the frontline. The Prime Minister, when he came back from Hawaii, said, 'Well, the Australian people knew that I wouldn't be out there holding a hose.' Of course they didn't expect him to be at the fire front. But what they did expect—and what every other Prime Minister in my lifetime, and, I think, even beyond that, has always done through a national crisis—was for him to be there, front and centre, making sure that the Australian people knew exactly what was happening and what resources were being made available and acting in their best interests. But, no, he was slow off the mark.

He was more interested in roaming around, forcing people to give him a handshake when, quite clearly, they were distressed. They had been at the frontline of a fire and they had lost their homes, and all he wanted was a picture opportunity. That was this Prime Minister. He was also quite quick to blame the New South Wales Premier—one of his own colleagues. He was shifting the blame to someone else—'Don't touch me. I'm Mr Teflon. I don't have to be accountable to anyone.' I can assure you: the Australian people have seen right through him.

How insensitive, and what a very clear demonstration of the lack of empathy by this Prime Minister, to actually go up to someone and grab their hand and want to shake it when they were so visibly upset and understandably so. There was such loss of life. He went to Kangaroo Island and his insensitivity there when he talked about no-one losing their lives was crushing to the residents and visitors of Kangaroo Island, and that was a message that was relayed out to the Australian community. He should hang his head in shame. I would be embarrassed if I were on that side of the chamber to see a Prime Minister who failed so miserably during a national crisis.

We all look to the leadership—it's irrelevant whether it's a Liberal or Labor government—at a time of crisis in the country. We rally together and look to that Prime Minister for leadership and to give people comfort and solace to know that their government is standing by them, because Australians expect that we stand shoulder to shoulder with them. We do that. That's what we, as Aussies, do—we stand up for one another. For a Prime Minister to so clearly demonstrate that he's not fit for the job, we couldn't ask for anything better from a political point of view on our side. But that's not what we want to see at a time of crisis. We want to be able to be proud of whoever holds that office and know that they are going to be front and centre and be the figurehead with respect, empathy and understanding and will act immediately.

The Prime Minister was sitting back and saying, 'Now I have to change the rules so I can bring out the army.' The issue that I think galls me and the Australians that have raised it with me the most is the fact that this Prime Minister slipped back to being 'Mr Scotty Morrison, the marketing man' to do an ad using the Defence Force.

And let's not forget: he authorised that, but, when you clicked on the link to make a donation, where do you think that link took them?