Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think the one thing Australians can be sure about in this time of chaos and complexity is that the one race that our Prime Minister will win and would win under any circumstances is how fast you can run away from responsibility. I just hope that at the next election, which will no doubt be in the next nine months, the Australian people run as fast as they can away from this government and vote with their feet.

When I heard Senator Cash talking in question time today, with the coalition asking themselves a question about how many terror attacks they have foiled since 2014, I noted that it's usually a sign that they've hit political rock bottom when that's what they start talking about. I read in Malcolm Turnbull's book over Christmas with interest his discussion about Tony Abbott's reign of terror in this place, hiding behind the flag and trying to throw this out there amongst the Australian people. It is the government's No. 1 role to protect its citizens, but it is absolutely failing to do that with this vaccine rollout. This is a major crisis and the government have failed to protect the Australian people. So it's no wonder the government are going back to questions they haven't asked themselves for years about foiling terror attacks.

What about climate change, the biggest threat we face? Yesterday was all the evidence we need that this government has also failed to protect the Australian people and failed in its duty of care to future generations. Mr Barnaby Joyce said just this morning on the radio, 'We don't have to come up with a plan for climate change in 2050.' That's just like they haven't come up with a plan for vaccinating this country. This government is a mess, and we need to bring a broom.