Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Payne) to questions without notice asked by Senators Thorpe and Rice today relating to a racist attack and to Mr Julian Assange.

The minister's answer to my very, very clear question—why hasn't the PM had anything to say on an Aboriginal woman and her baby being attacked by a Nazi with a flame-thrower this week?—was silence. The silence from the so-called leader of this country is violence. By saying nothing at all he's saying that these racially motivated terrorist attacks are okay. ASIO, this country's very own spy agency, has said that far-right extremism is growing in this country and that it is a threat. And what does the PM do? Nothing. When Labor senators in this place tried to get a motion through this chamber about a significant rise in far-right extremism, those opposite deleted all references to it. Why? Because those opposite are responsible for this, either because of what they say or because of what they don't say.

Today the Prime Minister was the guest of honour celebrating International Women's Day in this place. That in itself is a joke. He was standing in the Great Hall saying that women should be protected. He is right, we do need to be protected—protected from the Liberal Party. The leader of this government must be some kind of magical being. He has this ability to just vanish or simply know nothing. He has nothing to say when the country needs him most. Maybe someone should tell him that the reason the limousine picks him up every day is that he's meant to be the Prime Minister. Do your job! Grow a spine! Condemn racism every single time; otherwise you are condoning it.