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

The President has received the following letter from Senator Gallagher:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The continuing chaos and dysfunction from the Turnbull government.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today’s debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today to the reality of the chaos and dysfunction of this amazingly spectacular government in terms of the show of chaos and dysfunction. In any assessment of this government—it does not matter where you look, from superannuation to the backpacker tax, from the plebiscite to placating the right wing of his party who want to undermine our racial discrimination laws—this is a government in chaos in every area of policymaking and in every area of management of its parliamentary responsibilities. It is a government at war with itself.

There are many causes of this chaos, but let's just begin with one particularly obvious one: there in the House of Representatives sits the member for Warringah—the lord of chaos; the Trojan mouse—reluctantly occupying his space on the backbench surrounded by his admiring legions. From there he looks down at the frontbench he occupied so ingloriously and whispers under his breath: 'Soon, Malcolm. Soon.' He is planning his resurrection day by day and gathering a group of chaotic wanderers around the corridors to join in the chaos making with him.

To add to this chaos that resides on the backbench, there is no sense of a cohesive and ordered leadership. They have no idea how they have ended up here and what they want to do. Along with the Prime Minister, this government has lost its sense of purpose. Malcolm once had a cool veneer of enlightenment. It appears to have been discarded, along with his leather jacket. And into the fray now we have the chaos and dysfunction of a government that does not know what it stands for anymore and a leader who does not know who what he stands for anymore. He has disappointed an entire nation, and that is powerfully demonstrated by polling that indicates his absolute loss of esteem in the Australian community.

On a very serious note, even this government's closest allies—those who back it up at every turn; of those who remain who are still talking to it—are freely admitting that the Abbott-Turnbull government is a tremendous disappointment. Before the election, stakeholders were promised one thing—certainly they were promised stable government. Indeed the whole Australian community was promised stable government in the sense that having a double dissolution would clean up the mess of the Senate. Well, if ever that was a falsity that was displayed, today is a wonderful demonstration of how chaotic this place is in terms of what the Liberals have delivered for the Australian people. It is like being promised a Rolls Royce and getting a horse and cart, and a clapped-out one at that. This is also a dysfunctional government that has upset everyone: doctors, teachers, nurses, business leaders, economists and the Solicitor-General, who is not to be forgotten in the midst of the chaos that we have seen from this government. They have certainly reinforced the fears of everybody who disagreed with them and, in addition to that, they have even alienated and alarmed those who they thought agreed with them.

This list of badly-thought-through and badly-executed policy ideas is a very long one, but let's just look at a couple, such as the NBN and its profound disappointment to people who have had it rolled out. There is the real NBN and there is the NBN that the government decided that you should have—a far lesser version of what Australia needs for economic capacity and the ability to drive productivity. There is also the chaos and the distress caused by making it more expensive and difficult for people to visit their GPs. We have had incredible alarm raised by the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The reality is that the cost to go the doctor is now increasing for so many people. Doctors' business models are unsustainable as we see this government wed to a policy of a freeze on the Medicare rebate. The consequences of that and the dysfunction that it causes for our society are very, very significant. It is not just about this place. The dysfunction that is emerging from those people who are implementing the policies here is replete throughout our entire community.

Then there is the area of mental health—an issue so important to so many Australians. This government is presiding over a period of time where there has been an increase in suicide.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We put money into it because your lot never did!

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have Senator Macdonald over there interjecting. Let's put on the record what actually happened with mental health since the leather-jacket-wearing Mr Turnbull arrived as Prime Minister. He made the colours of this government very, very clear to the Australian public in his MYEFO statement where he withdrew $141 million from mental health. That was one of his first vandalism acts in terms of cutting money from health.

The chaos that that sort of decision making by this government wreaks in the community is astounding and the impacts are devastating, most often for those who have the least capacity to speak about it and those who have the least capacity to do something about it. And let's not forget those who, until fairly recently, worked inside the Abbott-Turnbull government who are now broadcasting on every media possible what a dysfunctional government it is. They are happy to speak out of school on every occasion about how much drama and chaos is going on inside this government. Having lost control of their own destiny, in their absolute desperation to do deals with anybody and everybody they have even mucked that up. I think the scale of the undertakings of this government to try and secure votes in this place started to become apparent to the Australian population today. What is it that they will not do to secure power and what is it that they will do to create the context for chaos and dysfunction?

They get the simplest of things wrong, even over in the House. You will remember a few Thursdays ago that Australians were surprised when a few of the ministers, obviously thinking that they did not need to show up and do their job, decided that they would take an early mark and removed themselves from the parliament. They were called back, and there was such a long period of time spent trying to clean up the mess there. They ended up hanging around for three hours to have a discussion. Instead of going to the heart of the problem, which is what this government should be doing—dealing with problems in an organised, structured and coherent way—their chaotic and shambolic way of dealing with it was that they decided to come back the next week and change the standing orders in the House so they could not be caught out again. It is like they are playing a game; that they think this is some sort of game—that being the government of Australia is a game that they can play, and that they can keep information hidden from the Australian population: 'It's all right; they don't need to know.'

Today we saw a very, very important change in the order of the business to discuss matters relating to two senators whose status in this place remains unknown at this time. Sadly, we have a problem with accessing the information from this government. Documents were provided—yes, they were provided. We had to delay the discussion of those from 9.30 to 12.30—again, more chaos that is accruing from the actions of those opposite. But we actually have an incomplete set of pieces of information provided to the Senate. They are trying to explain away the shame of what has been going on. We heard in explanations today that there was evidence that was given in briefs to counsel. But that evidence has not come to the Senate. That evidence is not being put out because this government is trying to hide so much from the Australian people. That is part of what is causing the chaos and dysfunction as well.

There is a degree of manipulation of information and hiding information that they cannot even keep straight amongst themselves. There is a hubris and an arrogance and a failure to sense that they need to be totally honest, open and accountable with the Australian people. They need to be open, honest and accountable to this Senate and provide details. But they cannot do that because they have come in here and won government with the slimmest of margins—by one seat in the other place. There are dodgy deals going on here in the Senate and the government are not able to hold this together. That is not only because of the chaos of their decision making, still trying to implement some of those massive cuts that they brought in under the Abbott budget. The implications of that in the public place are profound and devastating. But right here in this place their lack of respect for this chamber is creating the context in which this government are unable to be trusted.

I have had many conversations with the people from the media who sit in here and who are scrutinising this government. They have a breathtaking concern about the level of secrecy that this government is operating under. That is part of the chaos and dysfunction that is this government's signature. (Time expired)

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Neill for the humour at the end of her speech.

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The theatre.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, the theatre. It would have woken up anyone who might have the misfortune to be listening to this debate. Sadly, I have only 13 minutes to try to list the outcomes and positive progress that has happened in Australia since the Turnbull government was elected and before that, of course, under the Abbott government.

I would like to pause for a moment on that to say that, for anyone who follow these things and can remember the dysfunction of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, any government after that would look progressive and positive. I still remember my old mate Senator Cameron's line when he referred to his colleagues as lobotomised zombies—and they are talking about disunity in this government! There are so many factions in the Labor Party that even those in the Labor Party forget which faction they are in now. You should ask Senator Carr which faction he now is in.

A government senator: Or Senator Conroy.

Well, he is former Senator Conroy now. Let's not speak ill of the dead, except to say this. I note the Minister for Defence has graced the debate with her presence. The Labor Party kept trying to find someone to be shadow minister for defence and kept picking the absolute worst people possible. The comment about Senator Conroy reminded me of that.

I am reducing my time. As I say, 13 minutes will not allow me to but scratch the surface of the great advances that have occurred in this nation since the advent of the coalition government. I will start with defence, as the minister is here. A wonderful white paper has set the plans for defence for years into the future. It is a credible, costed plan that will protect Australia. All credit to you, Minister, for presiding over that wonderful white paper.

Part of the white paper, indirectly, was the comprehensive strategic partnership with Singapore which will result in 14,000 Singaporean troops training at new defence facilities in Australia—$1.2 billion worth. That is all paid for by the Singaporeans, I might say. It does not cost the Australian taxpayer one cent. But it will bring those troops, their money, their leave time and their operations to Australia. That is, again, one of the most exciting things that has happened up in Townsville where I am based.

Talking about Townsville reminds me of the wonderful work the government did with the northern Australia white paper. Already there has been $6 billion worth of investment into northern Australia as a result of the coalition government's interest in the north. That is opposed to what you get from Labor. Labor have no interest in the north at all. They did used to have Senator McLucas in here who I rarely agreed with, but at least she was from the north and at least she put a northern view to the Labor Party. Of course, the Labor Party got rid of her. They dumped her and replaced with a union hack, a failed state candidate who not only comes from Brisbane but has moved further south to the Gold Coast. That is the interest the Labor Party have in northern Australia.

Australia's economic growth has strengthened 3.3 per cent—the fastest growth of any of the G7 economies. That is a wonderful credit to the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and all of the cabinet. But importantly after Labor and the Greens—because they always work together; they are one and the same—had six years in government they did not do one thing about multinational tax avoidance. It was left to the incoming coalition government to start on the world's toughest laws to make multinational companies pay their tax. Labor and the Greens did absolutely nothing in six years.

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

You're trying to rewrite history.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These are all facts, Senator Polley, not the fairytales that we will hear from you when you get to your feet next.

Over the past year, over 220,000 new jobs have been created. Perhaps, Senator Polley, you might be interested in this because you and some of your colleagues talk a lot about women in jobs. You never did much when you were in government. I say to you that, of the 220,000 new jobs created, over 60 per cent have gone to women. So the coalition does not use the mantra or the rhetoric that the Labor Party do. It does not use quotas to get women in places. The coalition government actually goes out and does it and gets new jobs for women.

Senator O'Neill mentioned the NBN. Well, Senator O'Neill, I was connected up just on Friday. I have not yet been at home long enough to know the advantages of the NBN, but it is happening even in my small country town of Ayr way up in North Queensland where I live. The NBN is now there. If I had waited for Senator Conroy's model I would have been a much older man by the time the NBN came around. Congratulations to Senator Fifield on the advances he has made and the sense he has brought to the NBN.

I live in the regions. I travel a lot in the regions. I understand the importance of communications out there, and we are working on that: high-speed broadband to regional and remote areas, phone towers and 3,000 blackspots addressed with the $220 million Mobile Black Spot Program. The original satellite was not well received, and I have acknowledged that and spoken to my government about that. The proof is in the pudding, but I am told the second satellite will hugely improve communications in the more remote areas.

New export trade agreements, the advantages to Australia of the Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and Thailand free trade agreements, all of which were negotiated under coalition governments, have been enormous. They will be particularly helpful for people in the state I represent, Queensland, where we have to trade to live. We produce far more than we can consume locally, and these free trade agreements—particularly in the areas of beef, sugar and horticulture—are wonderful news for Australians in the primary industries area.

Mental health care was mentioned by the previous speaker, obviously without any idea of the facts of the matter. Under the coalition government there has been increased funding for more localised mental health care and support services. There was an additional $192 million provided for 12 suicide prevention centres, 10 more headspace facilities—that wonderful initiative of the coalition government—and an innovative IT trial for 24/7 support. We are implementing a national innovation and science agenda. There is over $1 billion to make it easier for innovative enterprises to access capital and collaborate with researchers to attract talent from overseas.

When history is written in relation to the story of border security in Australia the Labor Party will be seen as the wreckers. They have no plan at all. They opened the borders and allowed in anyone who might like to head to Australia. It was no matter, it seemed, to the Labor Party that thousands of them, that we know of, were killed on the way. That did not seem to worry the Labor Party or the Greens. Under the coalition government we have the world's most generous refugee policy. We have a proper immigration policy that is properly planned. When people come here they are welcomed here, they have jobs and they have homes. Labor just opened the borders and let anybody in at all.

The coalition government has done a wonderful job as well in security in these dangerous times. The No. 1 duty of a government is to try and keep its citizens safe and we have done that with increased legislative activity and support for ASIO, the AFP and other agencies.

Health care was mentioned. I do not know where Senator O'Neill lives or what left-wing rag she reads, but the fact of the matter is that bulk-billing by GPs has increased to record levels with 17 million more GP services bulk-billed in 2015-16 compared to Labor's last year of office. Thanks to Minister Ley, medicines are now cheaper and we have added life-saving medicines to the PBS. I am so proud of what we have done with health. Senator Smith was involved in the hepatitis C campaign. A drug that is worth about $80,000 for one person for one treatment is now on the PBS for, what, $37. Thanks to Senator Smith and his little team for working on that. I proudly say that I had a little part in that as well.

We have a National Innovation and Science Agenda, which is something that will equip Australia for the future. The note that I am glancing at talks about infrastructure. I am sorry, not only do I need another 13 minutes but also I need another 13 hours just to talk about infrastructure. The former Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, said he wanted to be known as the 'infrastructure Prime Minister'. He certainly set the path there and that has been continued by Mr Turnbull with over $50 billion in land infrastructure, promoting investment and building the economy. That is what it is all about: building the economy. Also, some $4 billion is going into public transport investment to get cities moving. We have a minister looking after cities. I cannot even start the list of infrastructure things. Therefore, I will move on a bit to talk about NDIS, which is supporting 460 people living with disabilities over the next period of time.

Our National Ice Action Strategy includes some $3 million to improve treatment, after care, education, prevention, support and community engagement in dealing with that horrible scourge of Australian society. I could go on and on but my time is just about out.

Finally, I will come back to this chamber. One of the other things this government was able to do was to introduce Senate voting reform, so that we are ending the days of backroom deals and preference whisperers. Individual voters now decide who represents them in the Senate. It has been a wonderful litany of progress and advancement under the Turnbull government.

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

Everything you need to know about what is wrong with this government can be found in one picture that is doing the rounds on social media today: a picture of Senator Bernardi, over in New York on secondment to the United Nations thanks to the taxpayers of Australia, wearing a hat that says, 'Make Australia great again.' It is a slogan—'Make the US great again'—that has been used by Mr Donald Trump in the US to enact change, because Donald Trump clearly believes that the US needs to change. What does Senator Bernardi do? He gets the same cap made for Australia. Senator Bernardi clearly did not believe the Prime Minister when the Prime Minister said at his first press conference out here in the courtyard that there is no better time than now to be an Australian.

The problem with this government is that it is divided. It is a divided government, and that is reflected in just about every piece of legislation that has come to this chamber. The government is without a compass. It is totally directionless and it has not dealt with any of the moral challenges and key issues that the Australian people expect it to. If you surveyed the citizens around this country and asked them what they believe the great moral challenges of our time are, they would talk to you about things like climate change, job security and economic inequality—the gap between the rich and the poor, which gets worse every year. They would talk to you about housing affordability, which is a major crisis for young and low-income Australians. Yet what is the government doing about these issues that really matter to this nation? If you want to make Australia great into the future then tackle the issues that matter.

What do we get instead, Senator Smith—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President? A plebiscite bill that you disagree with. It is divisive, a waste of money and a waste of our time. It makes us cop out on our responsibilities. We get a backpacker tax. We are going to tax some of the poorest people in Australia, who are here on a working holiday. They earn bugger-all, Mr Acting Deputy President, but we are going to go after them for 19 per cent of their earnings when they are here. They are absolutely critical, Senator Williams—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—as a pool of labour that primary producers in country and rural Australia rely on. What a thought bubble that one has turned out to be!

What about the two pieces of legislation we have dealt with in this 45th Parliament? One has been an omnibus bill to find $5 billion in savings. Guess who the government took the money off? Those who could least afford it: single parents, students, Newstart recipients and those in clean energy action. To make it an even bigger slap in the face to this nation, two weeks later the government turned around and introduced into this place a bill to spend $4 billion of the money they had just saved on a tax cut for the wealthiest Australians—to give a tax cut to millionaires. Senator Polley—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—you supported this. Your party has given Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull two clear victories in this parliament, victories that I believe go against the grain of what we need to do. The government are in chaos. Had you not supported them on those bills, they would have had no legislation through the Senate. And that legislation should not go through the Senate, because it is not good for Australia. It is a thought bubble. There is no vision, no courage and absolutely none of the reform that is needed in this country. We in the Greens are open to a conversation about raising revenue, spending money where it is needed and helping to retire debt if that is an issue, but where is the real reform? Why aren't we getting rid of perverse incentives like negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, which have helped lead to the property price bubble and a housing affordability crisis in this country? We can actually raise money and fix equality issues at the same time. There is so much we could do if we only had the courage to tackle the issues that matter.

And then there is climate change. In July the recording station at Cape Grim in Tasmania measured carbon dioxide at 400 parts per million. Four hundred and fifty parts per million is irreversible climate change. Only four months later it is at 404 parts per million. Within five years we are going to pass 450 parts per million. What are we doing about it? Absolutely nothing.

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

I rise to speak about the continued dysfunction and chaos that has been evident every single day since 1 July, when the coalition were returned to the government benches, and that continues. They have no idea what they are doing. They have a leader who had a plan to become Prime Minister of this country. The only problem was that when he was elected Prime Minister he had no plan. Today we have again had it demonstrated that he has no vision and no plan for this country.

It always delights me to follow Senator Macdonald's contributions in this chamber. Once again he talked a whole heap of nonsense. He is trying to rewrite history: every problem in the world today has been caused by the former Labor government. Well, that was too long ago now; the reality is that the problems we have in this country now and the disunity Senator Macdonald has in his party are caused by a lack of direction and lack of leadership from the Prime Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull.

We know that every time Mr Tony Abbott has the opportunity to get in front of the cameras he does everything he can to help the Prime Minister! But what do we have with the Prime Minister? When I am out in the community, most people say, 'Where is Malcolm Turnbull?' because we do not know who he is anymore. What they do see is a pale shade of Mr Abbott. There is really not a lot of difference when it comes to their policies. After telling us for months and months that they have stopped the boats coming to Australia, those opposite come up with this new thought bubble that Mr Turnbull caught as it was floating past. They thought, 'Let's get attention away from our own internal problems, from our own disunity and dysfunction.' Every time this government get into it any difficulty—and we know that Malcolm Turnbull's popularity is going down the drain—they turn either to national security issues or to 'Let's bash refugees!' What did they do? They went after the refugees. The Australian people are actually getting quite fed up with that, because they know, as everyone in this chamber knows, that a divided government cannot fulfil their obligation to provide good government for the Australian people.

When the Prime Minister addressed delegates at the Liberal state conference in my home state of Tasmania, with the demonstration of the sort of commitment and innovation that this government has created, what did the Prime Minister talk about? He talked about nine jobs that have been created in Tasmania. I for one am happy for every additional job that is created in my home state. But for a Prime Minister to swagger go on about nine jobs being created from this innovative, agile government was a joke. It was an embarrassment. Then we had the former Senator Richard Colbeck making his contribution, talking about—this is not the Labor Party; this is a former Liberal Senator from Tasmania—the disunity in his own party. He himself encouraged the party to come together. He knows, from talking to people around the community, that disunity is death to a government.

As I said, most people in the country are saying, 'Who is this Malcolm Turnbull?' He has lost his sense of self. They have no idea who he is. He has sold out on all of his principles, and we know that he has done that to the far right of the Liberal party. Today, we hear that Mr Turnbull is about going back on his word again on 18C. For months he has been saying that he will not relent on this policy. He said, 'The balance is right on 18C.' So what has he done again? He has done another backflip to appease the right within his party. Mr Turnbull will do and say anything to remain Prime Minister. We know that the numbers are being counted on that side. The problem is that there is not a clear candidate. Otherwise, Mr Turnbull would meet the same fate as Mr Abbott did. That is the state of play with this government.

There have been a number of thought bubbles. If you recall not so very long ago the Prime Minister went out and said, 'Oh, there is a thought bubble; let's increase the GST to 15 percent on everything.' Then, because they finally understood that the community would not support that, he let that thought bubble go again, and it went floating off. But it landed in Western Australia. Then we had the Liberal Premier of Western Australia wanting a bigger share of the GST.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Quite rightly so!

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

And I know, Senator Smith, you are very vocal in standing up for your state. And that is a good thing. But 15 percent on everything for everyday Australians was a no. We will never—never ever—support an increase of the GST to 15 percent. No one has forgotten about the massive tax break that has been given to big business over the next 10 years.

As I said, there has been one thought bubble after another floating across the sky. When things get hard for the government, yes, they grab another thought bubble. Now, they have turned it on to the refugees—wanting to permanently ban refugees from coming to Australia. That thought bubble will end up where it should be—on the floor. This internal dysfunction and chaos within this government continues to reign free when housing prizes continue to rise, living standards are falling, people are worried about their jobs and access to health. Mr Turnbull, as I said, cares about one thing. He cares about one job—that is, he his concerned about keeping his job as Prime Minister of this country. He has to ensure that he dances to the tune of those in the right for fear that Mr Abbott may end up getting the numbers and coming back. After all, Mr Abbott went to the United Kingdom and told everyone that would listen that he was going to be Prime Minister again of this country. I do not know where that thought bubble came from, but, from the information I have from those on the other side, Mr Abbott will not have the numbers to come back. They are still just trying to get the numbers for who it will be. Will it be Mr Morrison? Well, I was told, 'No. That's a B rating. Mr Morrison doesn't have it to become Prime Minister.' Does Julie Bishop have it? No, she does not have it because she does not understand loyalty. She chops and changes leaders probably more than some Australians have hot meals.

We know that this government has an incompetent minister for health—the worst Minister for Health and Aged Care that this country has ever seen. She lacks not only any vision or passion but any interest at all when it comes to older Australians. She is unashamedly the worst minister for health and ageing ever. Well, I should correct myself: it is not 'ageing', because this government does not give a damn about ageing. What she is is the Minister for Health and Aged Care. We also have the worst Treasurer. This Prime Minister and incompetent Treasurer are running the risk of this country losing the triple-A rating. Shame on those on the other side. We know that all their talk about debts and deficits during an election campaign means nothing because when they get into government they lack the vision for good policies. They are only interested in looking after the top end of town. And here we are: the gold-plated, triple-A credit ratings from all three global rating agencies are under threat because of Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison.

As a former investment banker you would have thought that Mr Turnbull would have a better handle on economic policies. But, unfortunately, no, he does not. The plan that he had when he came to the House of Representatives was to become Prime Minister. And he has succeeded. You have to take you hat off for him. He knifed Tony Abbott and now he is Prime Minister. Unfortunately, he does not know what to do with it. This is a time when we need a Prime Minister with strength, vision and the capacity to bring together not only his party and his government but the nation. I have to say that he is a very, very poor reflection of a good prime minister.

Then we had today—and we debated it this morning—about the former Senator Bob Day and the relationship with the government. Back in February 2014—almost three years ago—they knew there were problems with Mr Day and a property he owned because the Department of Finance advised them not to enter into any agreement. But, once again, they only listened to the advice that they wanted to hear. (Time expired)

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my great joys in travelling all the way across the Nullarbor from Perth via Melbourne to get to Canberra to come to the Senate is to follow Senator Polley in debates like this on a Monday afternoon.

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

You always follow me; I love it!

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do follow you—and sometimes I think to myself that perhaps Senator Polley is related to the Brothers Grimm, those two characters that are very, very famous for their storytelling and tales of folklore, because while her speeches are well written and show great imagination, they are very, very poor on facts and content. It would be great if Senator Polley could stay, but that is okay; I know that senators are very, very busy.

But I do want to use my opportunity this afternoon to put some facts on the record. We heard Senator O'Neill talk again, incorrectly, about the progress that is being made with regard to the National Broadband Network. Senator O'Neill, from the North Coast of New South Wales, regularly comes in here to talk about the National Broadband Network and very rarely, if ever, gives an accurate account of the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

In addition, Senator Polley, Senator O'Neill and other Labor senators often come in here to talk about Medicare and bulk-billing, again, with the absence of any facts about the significant progress that is being made in regard to Medicare in our country. So I am going to dispel some of those inaccuracies again this afternoon. Then, if time allows, I would like to talk briefly about what the government is doing to support economic growth and deliver jobs and job security for Australians.

It is dispiriting to begin another sitting week—this is the third final sitting week of this year's parliamentary calendar—with another pointless MPI from the Australian Labor Party. But, unfortunately, that is something that we have become accustomed to in this very, very early part of what is the 45th parliament. It is interesting to read the MPI today, talking about 'chaos and dysfunction'. But you do not have to take yourself too far back into Australia's political history to see with great accuracy the chaos and dysfunction that characterised the former Labor government.

Let me just give you a bit of an insight into what Labor's thinking is when they come to this particular part of a parliamentary sitting day and they are trying to think about how to inject a bit of debate and shift the political focus away from the good things the government is doing, improving the quality of life for many, many Australians and giving them job opportunities. Their thinking is quite a simple one: they like to look back into history, look at a strategy that the coalition might have used in trying to draw attention to Labor's dysfunction and then try to apply it in a modern context.

Some of you might recall that in the early 2000's Kim Beazley would often call John Howard arrogant. Of course, reflecting back on John Howard's successful career as Prime Minister of our country, I think we would all agree that John Howard was most definitely not arrogant. But Labor was thinking that because John Howard had used the word 'arrogant' so successfully against Paul Keating they decided in those days to adopt the same strategy—a lack of imagination on their part—and go and call John Howard arrogant. But, of course, we know that that failed. So we find today that they are now just trying to accuse this new government, elected on 2 July, with the claim of being chaotic and dysfunctional, knowing that that is the characteristic that more than beset the previous Labor government; it became the stand-out or hallmark feature of their period of time in government.

I think it is important for those people who might have nothing to do one day in the future to go to the Hansard and have a look at the sorts of things that were being discussed today. What occurred in the Senate today was quite a proper process. What we were discussing earlier today was the matter of eligibility of particular individuals to serve in this Senate chamber. Indeed, we know that the process is a proper one because the government's efforts to refer those matters to the High Court were actually agreed to—endorsed—by Labor. Now, only a few hours later, we are being accused of being a government characterised by chaos and dysfunction. It is a bit rich for the Labor Party to vote to support the government's course of action in these matters on the one hand but then turn around only a couple of hours later and try and say there is chaos and dysfunction.

Presumably, if the process that had been undertaken earlier today was dysfunctional and chaotic then their votes in the chamber would not have been there to support the government's course of action. So the fact that Labor voted to support what the government has done today is very, very powerful evidence that the process is proper and that the government is not characterised by chaos and dysfunction. I think it is important to also put on the record that what we are talking about are two senators from the crossbench. We are not talking about two senators from the government benches.

Let me just turn to dispelling some myths. Let me start by dispelling some myths around the National Broadband Network. I noticed that it was absent from Senator Polley's contribution. She normally likes to talk about the National Broadband Network across Tasmania. We might hear a little bit from Senator Lambie about the National Broadband Network. We did hear a lot about it in Senator O'Neill's contribution. So let me just put some facts on the table. If you would bear with me, Mr Acting Deputy President, I would like to put 10 facts on the table about the National Broadband Network before I start to talk about some facts in regard to Medicare and bulk-billing across the country.

Let me start with fact No. 1 in regard to the National Broadband Network. Under this coalition government the NBN Co is connecting more active users every month than Labor connected during its entire time in government. What that means is there have been close to 90,000 new active services over the past month compared to just 51,000 at the time of the 2013 election under the previous Labor government. Fact No. 2: under the coalition government the National Broadband Network has hit every rollout target since the coalition came to government. Fact No. 3: the NBN is now available to one in four Australian premises—more than 3.2 million premises. Fact No. 4: the NBN now has over 1.4 million active connections. To put this in context, I will share with you, Mr Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan, and others, some of Labor's facts when it comes to the National Broadband Network. Fact No. 5: the NBN will be available to half of all Australian premises by the end of June next year, increasing to three-quarters of all premises—that is, nine million premises—by the end of June 2018. Fact No. 6: today, nearly two-thirds of all premises are in design, under construction or ready for service under the National Broadband Network. Remember that Senator O'Neill said this afternoon that the National Broadband Network was broken. It is far from broken under the stewardship of this Prime Minister and under the stewardship of the new Minister for Communications, our colleague Senator Fifield. Fact No. 7: 70 per cent of premises covered by the NBN today are in regional and non-metropolitan areas. I know firsthand the powerful transformative effect this is having as I travel across regional Western Australia and see the rollout of the NBN. It is interesting that very few people are now having the fibre discussion, because they can see for themselves and experience for themselves, that the wireless NBN service is of a high quality—I will come to the issue of speed soon, because I know that it is top of mind for many people in non-metropolitan areas. Fact No. 8: the NBN is more affordable under the coalition than it was ever going to be under Labor. Labor's gold-plated version required peak funding of $49 billion compared to costings under the coalition. Fact No. 9: speed was for a long time a very complex and demanding issue when it came to building confidence in the National Broadband Network for consumers—this is the final fact in support of the government's NBN rollout plan—the coalition's NBN will provide download speeds of 25 megabits to all premises and 50 megabits to 90 per cent of fixed-line premises in Australia. Why is that important? Because speed was such an important argument and issue in the debate we had for many, many years around the National Broadband Network. What is the lived experience? What are consumers actually doing? Four out of five users are purchasing NBN plans with speeds of 25 megabits or less.

In the very brief time still available to me I will touch briefly on the issue of Medicare. This is important. A standout feature and a characteristic of the federal election campaign was Labor's Medicare scare campaign—we still hear it today. But Labor conveniently want to overlook the very real facts with regard to Medicare spending in this country. Let me start—very, very briefly—by reminding people about what is really happening with bulk-billing rates. Bulk-billing rates in our country are the highest they have ever been. GP bulk-billing rates are 85 per cent compared to an average of just 79 per cent under Labor. Across Australia last financial year, there were over 17 million more bulk-billed GP attendances compared to Labor's last full year in office. What does that mean? It means that more people are going to the doctor in Australia and seeing a GP without having to pay anything. You would not know that if you listened to Labor. You would not know that, if you paid too much attention to what Labor was saying. In the brief time available to me, I could go through every state and share with you what that means at a grassroots level, but I will leave that for another contribution at another time, when I am sure I will follow Senator Polley. (Time expired)

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to today's matter of public importance, namely the continuing chaos and dysfunction from the Turnbull government. I do not want this statement to be true. I want this government to run smoothly without chaos and dysfunction, because that would mean there would be a greater chance of this parliament successfully delivering for the people of Tasmania. But, unfortunately, the chaos and dysfunction seen in the Abbott-Hockey government has infected the Turnbull-Morrison government. That is probably because the original cause of the dysfunction, Mr Abbott, still remains in parliament and has taken his political inspiration from Liberal leader Bob Menzies instead of Harold Holt. Perhaps we have not seen the dysfunction to the level where the Liberal Party was forced to sack an elected Prime Minister and send the Treasurer to America on a plumb diplomatic job, but the dysfunction is there nonetheless.

One of the best examples of the political dysfunction of the present-day Liberal and National parties is the way this government has single-handedly killed off the backpacker seasonal workforce in the rural areas and the industries of Tasmania and the other states. The Liberal government has known about the backpacker tax crisis for 16 months—since May 2015. Already, under the new leadership of the Liberal and National parties, the backpacker tax crisis has caused tens, possibly hundreds, of millions of dollars of damage to Tasmania's farming and tourism industries because of political arrogance, stupidity, dysfunction, inaction and the lack of consultation—and do not even mention modelling, which went AWOL. The facts also show that Tasmanian Liberal senators have either, firstly, no influence in Canberra and are dangerously incompetent or, secondly, are part of a deliberate Liberal plan to destroy the tourism, berry, fruit and vegetable industries in Tasmania. They have sat back, made lame excuse after lame excuse and watched while Tasmanian farmers have been slowly strangled of seasonal workers and are forced to risk their families' life savings.

Tasmanian farmers and tourism operators now know that their best chance of survival is an independent fair-minded crossbench. All Tasmanians in the agriculture and tourism industries—especially those who recently visited Canberra—and all of the Tasmanian farmers and business leaders who have spoken out against the government's 19 per cent tax, or the original 32.5 per cent tax, now know that if the government held a majority in the Senate there would be no hope in hell of scrapping this unfair, stupid and damaging backpacker tax.

I have to thank a number of fellow crossbench senators for indicating today that they will support my plan to lower the tax rate to zero per cent rather than the government's proposed 19 per cent. If the Labor Party chooses not to support the zero per cent, I will put forward another amendment to lower the government's rate from 19 per cent to 10.5 per cent. Every day the backpacker tax issue drags on, more international damage is caused to brand Tasmania.

While at the moment the Liberals' dysfunctional plans to change higher education have been temporarily shelved, I will not forget attempts by this Liberal Party to bribe or bully me into voting for their plan to impose $100,000 degrees on Tasmanian uni students. I was reminded of this Liberal political dysfunction when Prime Minister Turnbull was forced, after an election promise, to deliver an extra $150 million to the University of Tasmania. And we have managed to achieve this welcome boost to our higher education without students having to face the prospect of paying for $100,000 degrees.

My Australian jobs first stand was vindicated recently when the stevedore company DP World spectacularly backflipped. Initially DP World indicated no Liberal maritime law changes and no Burnie port development. What a load of rubbish! In recent weeks the company has finally acknowledged that I and other crossbench senators were correct. DP World has recently admitted that they could establish an international port in Burnie without the parliament agreeing to the Liberals' changes to coastal shipping legislation which threatened the jobs of 400 seafarers. This is further proof of a dysfunctional Liberal-National policy which could come back while ever we have a dysfunctional Mr Abbott and his supporters driving policy of the Turnbull government.

In closing, if there was no dysfunction, the Senate would not have agreed with me and established investigations into, firstly, the high rate of veteran suicides and the Department of Veterans' Affairs dangerous and dysfunctional management of veterans; secondly, the extraordinary crisis in the Australian dairy industry; and, thirdly, the unaccounted for hundreds of millions in Commonwealth funds that was set aside for but not delivered to approximately 26,000 Indigenous Tasmanians.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When he grabbed power from Tony Abbott just a little over a year ago, we all remember the current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, making a lot of promises to the Australian people. He was going to restore economic credibility. He was going to solve climate change. He was going to usher in all sorts of social reform in his beautiful leather jacket that he used to parade on Q&A. As a Labor person, I remember actually being a little bit concerned by the number of people I came into contact with who were visibly not only breathing a sigh of relief that Australia had finally seen the back of Tony Abbott and all of his cronies but also very excited that perhaps at last Australia had a grown up in charge.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Williams, on a point of order?

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

I ask that you request that Senator Watt refers to those in the other place by their correct title, not just by their Christian surname. That is way this chamber has operated in the eight years I have been here.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Watt, you might recognise that protocol.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to do that for the remainder of my speech. As I said, I remember people being visibly relieved that, perhaps with the new Prime Minister, we had an adult in charge. But it has not really taken very long for us to be so sorely disappointed by this government. Not only is it clear that we do not have a grown up in charge in the current Prime Minister and his government; we do not even have a bunch of children in charge. This government is worse than a bunch of children. The only analogy I can think of to describe the way this government operates is a children's TV show: The Muppets.

We have all sorts of characters out there who come straight off a TV show. Recently I as well as several other witnesses had to endure an inquiry into the actions of the Solicitor-General, one of Australia's foremost legal minds, which subjected him to haranguing by the Senate's own Statler and Waldorf, Senator Macdonald and Senator O'Sullivan, for hour after hour. We saw it again in Senate estimates with Senator Macdonald back in action yet again.

Of course, The Muppets is also an apt analogy because the government is led by its very own Kermit the Frog. Kermit's most famous song is 'It's not Easy Bein' Green'. It seems that the Prime Minister has also found it not very easy being green in a party as right-wing as his own has become.

The Muppets, of course, is a puppet show, and we know who the puppetmaster in this government is. He is beaming in on a daily basis through his Twitter account wearing all sorts of caps, and that puppetmaster is Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi. He is out there in New York as we speak, telling Australians that he is out there proudly campaigning for Donald Trump. He not only says he is going to make American great again with Donald Trump but is also threatening to come back to Australia and make Australia great again, which is quite an admission about the lack of performance from this government over the last couple of years.

In preparing for this speech this afternoon I challenged myself to come up with 10 examples of how this government has stuffed things up the, what, three or four months it has actually been in office. Not only did I get to 10; I could actually go above 10 without even trying to think about it. First of all we had the double-dissolution, called because apparently we needed the ABCC to start reimposing the rule of law on Australian construction sites. Of course, we did not hear one thing about the ABCC during the election campaign, and now this government has to keep deferring it because it has not got the numbers to get it through.

Second is section 18C, the section of legislation which is designed to prevent racial hatred. I remember when this was first floated by coalition senators led by Senator Bernardi just after the election. This Prime Minister said that this was not a priority. Of course, in the last few days he has had to crawl back from that because he is crawling up to Senator Bernardi every moment he gets. Very clearly this Prime Minister is about to sell out yet again on something he believes in by backing an inquiry to remove the prohibition against racial hatred.

We had the royal commission called after those terrible events about the treatment of young people in detention in the Northern Territory were brought to light, but this government could not even find a commissioner who could remain in that role for 48 hours. Very quickly they had to come up with a replacement. There was census fail, which all Australians know way too much about. Within weeks they were losing debates on the parliament floor, the first government to do so in decades. Even today the government in the House of Representatives has seconded a motion moved by Labor criticising the government for the way it is dealing with pensions. We have had all sorts of tax changes that were taken to the election by this government: superannuation changes, backpacker taxes and company taxes. The government has walked away from them, all election commitments, at a rate of knots. They have had a plebiscite that they cannot get through this chamber. They have had dodgy guns-for-votes deals that they tried to get up to before they were exposed. They have absolutely brutalised the Solicitor-General until he has had to resign. Now we get to this week, where they are relying on Senator Day in the new offices-for-votes scandal. This government is not adults. They are not children. They are a bunch of muppets.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the discussion has expired.