Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Hansard source

They lost a lot of ministers, Senator Farrell. They're feeling like the neglected country cousins. They're reduced to squabbling over the Deputy Speakership. We now know that, in the days following the Nationals' leadership spill, the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack—who we all know is a decent person and does a pretty good race call—lacks the authority to hold the farm together. He lobbied the Prime Minister to dole out $120,000, on top of the $400,000 already given, to keep the doors open for an aged-care facility in the electorate of one of his dwindling crew of allies, the member for Nicholls, Damian Drum. I can tell you that Nicholls is a very important agricultural area in Victoria. It has the Goulburn Valley in it. It has SPC fruits. I have visited there. What I loved about the various groups I met with in Shepparton was that they all informed Mr Drum, the member for Nicholls, that I was arriving, and he said that I was most welcome to come because he had no worries about holding his seat. Now he can see, perhaps, that of course he didn't have many worries, because he had all of this pork-barrelling lined up to dole out to his constituents. The pork barrel is so blatant that even some in the Nationals, who have proven over the years to not be averse to a bit of doling out of swine, have complained due process was not followed. Does this all answer the question of how much a vote inside the Nationals' party room is worth these days? It seems $500,000, give or take, is about the mark.

I ask those who might be here in the chamber at some point, or those in their offices, whether they would let themselves stop being trampled upon by their coalition partner, who might seem to only care about taking their votes on the floor. They don't seem to give much care and heed to their junior coalition partner otherwise. We needn't look further than the recent ambassadorial appointments. It's clear that the Liberal Party have successfully pushed out National Party former MPs, because, excluding Peter McGauran, the last National Party identity to be appointed an ambassador was the late Hon. Tim Fischer AC, who was appointed not by the Liberals but by Kevin Rudd's Labor government in 2008. We're better friends, perhaps, to the National Party than are the Liberal Party.

The $100 million sports rorts frenzy, which we now know was carefully coordinated from the Prime Minister's office, has already crystallised in the minds of the Australian public the rot that has become the modus operandi of this tired three-term government.

I encourage those opposite to stop propping up this 'Nigel no friends' Prime Minister. I especially encourage those with a sense of morality and history to search their consciousness before covering up for this Prime Minister's rorting and deception. History tells us that he won't be here for much longer. The Liberal Party might have changed its party room rules but everyone knows that once the member for Dickson, or the member for Pearce or the member for Kooyong has the numbers, they will use them. After all, it takes only 50 per cent plus one to change the party room rules.

Now, gather around while we have a little bit of a history lesson. We had Mr Morrison and his 'circle of six' supporters. Remember, they gathered around. Remember, he gave then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull the hug of death? This is my Prime Minister, I'm ambitious for him. Remember that? Anyway, baboons have been on the Notice Paper today. Mr Morrison and his 'circle of six' will be stampeded into the dust by the rampaging baboons of the Liberal Left and Right, because Mr Morrison doesn't actually have a support base in his own party. In order to succeed with his hug of death of former Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, the Prime Minister had to form a devil's pact with the moderates in his own party, as the conservative flank had coalesced behind— (Time expired)