Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I likewise rise today to take note of the responses provided to coalition questions during question time. Often, when standing up to take note in these debates, particularly now that we are in opposition, we really have justified why the hour from 2 pm to 3 pm each day is called 'question time' and not 'answer time', because time and again the opposition comes into this place asking questions of the government—important questions, questions that in many cases have been relayed to us by constituents back at home, by stakeholders and by communities across this country—and time and again there is no response from the government. There is no clear answer; there is equivocation, there is spin, and there is absolutely no substance to what this government is trying to achieve on behalf of Australians.

We did have a wide-ranging list of questions here today. My colleagues Senator O'Sullivan and Senator Kovacic have gone through some of these issues, but whether we're talking about the granting of visas, border security, national security or keeping Australian communities safe, whether it's this government and its uncanny ability to wink to the radical left in this country or it's taxing the family car, this government has its priorities absolutely wrong. It is all spin and no substance.

I want to touch on just a few issues in my contribution in the chamber here this afternoon that were raised during question time. The first one is the government's failure to keep the community safe in this country and to take truly seriously some of the concerns we are currently seeing play out across the country. The concern that I particularly have is the government's failure to take the rise of antisemitism seriously. A couple of weeks ago my colleagues on the legal and constitutional affairs Senate estimates committee Senator Paterson and Senator Scarr asked some very pertinent questions of the Department of Home Affairs, questioning why the government have developed a specific package of support that is going to deal with Islamophobia in Australia but haven't developed a similar program to tackle antisemitism. My colleagues point out that there is a crisis of antisemitism in this country, and we know that this the case because it is being borne out by statistics on the reporting of prejudice-motivated crimes. But when my colleagues Senator Paterson and Senator Scarr asked these questions in Senate estimates, when they put questions to the Department of Home Affairs asking them why they hadn't done more to tackle antisemitism, they said, 'I will take that on notice.' I think many of the senators on the side of the chamber are getting progressively sicker and sicker of hearing that at Senate estimates. Yes, we recognise it is the right of bureaucrats and of ministers to take questions on notice, but it does get very frustrating when we are bringing important issues to Senate estimates and, indeed, into question time, and ministers are taking questions on notice and are not providing fulsome responses.

We saw that again today in a conversation we had about Labor's new tax on family cars, and I find it interesting that other Labor senators want to come in here and talk about ancient history—they want to talk about what governments past have done—but they don't actually want to come in and talk about the fact that under the new proposal by the Albanese government the family car is going to cost significantly more. This is going to impact really badly on individuals, households and businesses across Australia that are buying big cars. We know that this tax means it's going to cost more than $11,000 more for a Toyota RAV4, more than $12,000 more for an MG ZS, and more than $25,000 more for a Toyota Land Cruiser. When I'm driving up the Midland Highway in Tassie, I see quite a few land cruisers on the road, and it absolutely staggers me that they are going to be $25,000 more expensive under this Labor government. But you wouldn't hear that from the Labor senator's contributions during take note of answers. You wouldn't hear that in the response from any ministers to questions asked by the coalition today because, as I said at the start of this contribution, this government are all spin—they are zero substance.

They come here every day and refuse to actually engage in the issues that are important to all Australians.

Question agreed to.