Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is very timely actually to come after the contribution by that senator because there is something to be said for the anniversary that his side of politics is going to celebrate tomorrow. He was one of those who actually helped roll Tony Abbott and gave us the experiment of Malcolm Turnbull—and what a fizzer that has turned out to be. We on this side have some history here and we remember what Malcolm Turnbull was like when he was the Leader of the Opposition previously. Overwhelmingly the Australian people are disappointed with this Prime Minister. There has never been a Prime Minister who has promised so much and failed to deliver anything.

In this place 12 months ago, I said that Malcolm Turnbull is Tony Abbott in a top hat and I stand by those comments that I made.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley resume your seat. Senator Williams on a point of order?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That did not take long.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well it would not take long, Senator Polley. Mr Acting Deputy President, if she could address those in the other place by their correct title as some respect, it would maintain levels and standards in this chamber.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are absolutely right, Senator Williams. Senator Polley, if you would refer to members in the other place by their correct titles.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is quite clear that there is no signature policy. There is nothing we can reflect on to say, 'This is what Mr Malcolm Turnbull stands for.' We are still scratching our heads waiting to see what he actually stands for and we are not alone because the Australian community are still wondering what it is that they have got in this Prime Minister. For someone who has gone out on some very key policy positions, we have seen no evidence of the Prime Minister's conviction. Even though he has always supported a different view to myself, such as on same sex marriage, what has he managed to do with that? It is complete chaos. It is a mess. He is responding to a section within his own caucus, not following is true beliefs. That is another example of how he has let down the Australian people.

Another issue the Prime Minister has espoused, when it has been politically opportunistic to get on the bandwagon, is that he cares very deeply for women and that violence against women begins with disrespecting women, and I agree. But then why does the Prime Minister preside over the savage cuts that have been made to women's health? If that is not disrespecting Australian women, I really cannot think of a better example.

We know that the government is in chaos. It is dysfunctional. There is internal division. I am sure Mr Turnbull gets up every morning and thinks, 'Well where is the trouble going to come from today?' He knows that we are going to keep him to his election commitments. But what we do not know on any given day is who is going to be pulling his strings because, as I said, he has certainly shown no leadership, none whatsoever.

What we do know though from the past year is that it has really been a parliament equivalent to the Game of Thrones or the Lord of the Fliesyou know, the story about the little boys who tried to govern themselves but failed. He was a Prime Minister who came into office after rolling and knifing a sitting Prime Minister. I see there are some people in the chamber tonight who, when we did the same thing to our sitting Prime Minister, were very eloquent in their attacks on the actions that were taken by those people. They have done the same thing. We just do not understand why they did it. Mr Turnbull told us that it would be the end of the three-word slogans, that it would be a very agile 21st-century government but we have not seen any evidence of that, none whatsoever.

You have to be an adult to vote so this government was voted in by adults in this country. We were promised by the Abbott government and we were promised by the Turnbull government that it was going to be a government of adults. But we have not seen evidence of that at all.

What we saw in that other place in the very first week of the 45th Parliament was that the government members could not wait to get out of the House of Representatives to the extent that their one-seat majority proved to be ineffectual. They had to gather all their members and get what ministers they could to fly back to Canberra because those ministers had left for some important meetings—which turned out to be, in the case of one of those ministers, just a media conference. But what is really interesting is how they have now put measures in place so that no-one escapes from the House of Representatives on a Thursday afternoon. The Leader of the House in the House of Representatives has said that they are going to put gatekeepers at every exit of Parliament House to ensure that none of their members escape. That is a really odd way for an adult, agile, 21st century government to act.

But their response has gone even further than that. They are now trying to change the hours of sitting in the House of Representatives. They do not want the House of Representatives to sit past 8 pm on any night. This is the same government that is attacking Australian workers—wanting to cut out penalty rates. So they will attack Australian workers and say, 'You should be working on public holidays; you should be working on weekends for the same rate as any other day of the week,' yet they want to make sure that they are out of this place by 8 o'clock. This is an agile, innovative, 21st-century government? No wonder the country and the community are confused about this Prime Minister.

Casting our minds back to when Mr Turnbull knifed Tony Abbott, he said that he was going to bring a new energy into the prime ministership. He said he would preside over an agile, innovative government that was of the 21st century. He said he would have a plan for the future, but what we have really seen is that he has gone from being agile to fragile. Never before have we had a Prime Minister who has promised so much but delivered so little. He promised he would lead a united party, but all we have seen is dithering, delays, dysfunction and disunity from those opposite.

We understand that it is not always easy to bring a caucus together, particularly when you have those from the Right who are pulling strings and there are also people from the Left—Mr Turnbull owes so much for the support that he garnered to take over the leadership. What we also know is that there are 17 fewer members on the government benches in the House of Representatives. That speaks volumes about the commitment that this Prime Minister has made to the Australian people. I have tried to go back through a heap of papers and speeches to see what it is that the Prime Minister has achieved since he came to office. But it is not just me who is scratching my head and trying to understand what he has achieved and why there was a necessity to roll a sitting Prime Minister. Someone like Mr Andrew Bolt, who is certainly not, by tradition, a true believer or someone who supports us, said to Mr Kennett:

Can you name the achievements of the Turnbull government one year in office?

His response was:

Not easily.

Mr Bolt then said:

Can you name one? I am not asking this as a trick question.

Mr Kennett replied:

I want him desperately to succeed.

Mr Bolt's response was:

That's right, but can you name one?

Mr Kennett said:

No, not at the moment.

So it is no wonder there is confusion in the community. It is no wonder that at the election—with Mr Shorten and our policies and our leadership team that had listened to the community and developed excellent policies—the Australian community could see that there was some vision and passion and a strategy for the future. Unfortunately, that is lacking from those opposite. But there is one thing that we can put our money on as a true reflection of this Prime Minister. He is saying that there has never been such an exciting time to do whatever in this country. Well, there has never been a more exciting time—in my lifetime I do not recall there being a more exciting time—to sit by and watch a Prime Minister fizz out.