Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

What a dysfunctional government we have on display here again today! Here we are, ticking down to four in the afternoon, almost a full hour after question time finished, and we have a government that cannot keep control of the legislative agenda. They can't run this chamber; how can they possibly run the country? Well, they've proven over the last two years that they cannot run the country.

My goodness, gracious me! We have seen in here—and in the media—again today how the Greens tail is wagging this dog of a government. I'll remind the members of the government that the Greens have already said they don't want to have any agreement with us going into government, and we accept that. We wouldn't do a deal with the Greens to get government. But what did we hear from the current government when they were asked about that in question time today? We heard mealy-mouthed words. We heard obfuscation. We heard an unwillingness to decisively commit to things like negative gearing, because they know, in the back of their minds, they secretly want to do a deal with the Greens to retain power in this country. And they will do that deal. Everybody knows it; all of Australia knows that Labor will do that deal with the Greens to retain power, because that is all that matters to them, no matter how far it drags them to the Left. No matter how much the tail wags the dog, they will do that deal, and it will be to the enormous detriment of Australia, particularly to the detriment of my home state of Western Australia.

We've seen it. We've seen it, Senator O'Sullivan, in the last few days. We've had Minister Plibersek say she's talking to the Greens about the Nature Positive Plan and putting forward climate triggers. Then the Prime Minister said: 'No, no, no. We couldn't possibly talk to the Greens about something like that.' And then Minister Plibersek goes back out and says, 'No, we are talking to the Greens about exactly that.' The chaos and dysfunction between the Labor Party and the Greens and between ministers within the Labor government have been starkly on display. And who's going to suffer? It will be all of Australia but particularly my home state of Western Australia.

We saw it again in the disastrous decision on the McPhillamys mine by Minister Plibersek, a decision driven by ideology, not by good sense. She has refused to provide a statement of reasons. She has refused to justify her decision to shut down a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the local community in royalties, jobs and taxation revenue. What do we get from the government? Silence and an unwillingness to justify their ideologically driven decisions. That is why we know Labor will get into bed with the Greens, if they can, after the next election. We know and every Australian knows that Labor will get into bed with the Greens to retain government, no matter what they ask. The tail will keep wagging the dog. For this dog of a Labor government, the tail will keep wagging the dog if it is allowed to.

There's one way the Australian people can prevent that—one way the Australian people can prevent the Greens tail wagging the Labor dog—and that is to ensure that a Peter Dutton led coalition government is elected to run Australia again. We need to see that. We see the fear of Peter Dutton on display on the other side every question time. Getting personal, the focus on the man not the policy—that's all you know. We know the fear campaigns that are coming from your side. We know how Labor operates. And the Australian people know how Labor operates. They know you'll get into bed with the Greens. They know you'll attack Peter Dutton at every opportunity. They know you'll go low. They know you'll be destructive and that you'll run the negative fear campaigns. But the Australian people have woken up to what a truly rotten government you are.