Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that, at 8.30 am today, Senators Gallagher, Hinch and Siewert each submitted a letter in accordance with standing order 75 proposing a matter of public importance. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot.

As a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter has been received 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 inability of the Turnbull Government to provide stable united leadership for all Australians.

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.

Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is the start of a new Senate year, and what a start it has been. We have seen a government that is divided and falling apart. It is the Seinfeld government: it is a government that has recalled parliament, brought us back here today, for the simple reason that it was on the calendar—there is nothing to actually do. There is no legislation, there is no purpose and there is no point. All we are doing here is pretending that this is a government that has some kind of control. They started off on the first day with some terrible polling numbers—54-46. None of us in this business follow polling; there is only the one poll that matters, the one on election day. But that news suddenly got surpassed by Senator Bernardi quitting the Liberal Party—quitting a party that it appeared he was running; quitting a party which, in the seven months since the last election, had done everything he asked for. He could not point to any policy difference, but he left—a complete vote of no confidence in Malcolm Turnbull.

On top of that, what have we seen this past week? This is something that has frustrated me: we are hearing politician after politician and senator after senator talk about the establishment and talk about the insiders. Let us be clear: if you are an old, white, rich, male senator you are the establishment. You are the system. We are hearing these government ministers talking about the establishment and saying, 'We will make Australia great again,' running their Trump lines. They are the government. People like George Christensen from the other place and Senator Bernardi and others go out and talk about making Australia great again, but they have been running this country for over a term now. They have set the rules. They have set the policies. We hear all about insiders and outsiders, and we have commentator after commentator going on shows like Sky News talking about how they have been silenced and they do not have a voice anymore. If you have your own nightly television show you are not being silenced this country. Maybe no-one is watching, but if you have two to three hours on either radio or television every single day you are not someone whose voice has been silenced.

There is this whole debate about where things are heading. You have a government that is folding on 18C and the rights of individuals. Why? Because of the power of right-wing shock jocks. You have a government that has fallen over already on the issue of marriage equality. It cannot come to a position. In the paper on the weekend we read that a handful—and perhaps even more than a handful—of backbenchers and others want to see marriage equality happen in this country, but they have been silenced. Their voices are not being heard in the Liberal Party.

It is madness that we put so much focus on and so much effort into going after people on Centrelink benefits and yet the government talks about $50 billion worth of tax cuts for Australia's largest companies, over $7 billion of which will go to the four largest banks. We talk about inequality, and it is growing. We also talk about housing affordability—in a place like Sydney the median house price is $1.2 million.

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

Move to Inverell. Go to the country.

Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing says 'average' like $1 million. Senator Williams says go to Inverell. I would love to, the only problem is you have cut so many regional services and regional jobs that, unfortunately, people do not actually have the opportunity or ability to move to these places. Perhaps if you actually believed in rail and perhaps if you were prepared to do something about climate change or even the jobs of the future there would be more opportunity and hope—and perhaps if you could even get the NBN up properly out there. Oh, that is right; Tony Windsor made sure you could! It is a government that has already fallen apart. It is a government that is spiralling out. It is a government that goes from one crisis to another, and for the nation the sooner we are rid of this mob the better.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to participate in this debate, because I entirely agree that there is no leadership from Mr Turnbull. You have no better display of that than today's debacle—the latest debacle, I should I say; I will come to the other one that we have been talking about, Centrelink, in a minute. But today there is the debacle of the government's announcement of their latest omnicuts, in the guise of, 'Here we are we, we are providing better child care for you and we are providing better paid parental leave for you.' But they are sneaking a whole lot of their other zombie budget cut measures back in. These are the budget cut measures that this Senate has been resisting ever since they started showing up in the Abbott budget of 2014. Remember that awful budget, which was overwhelmingly rejected by the community? They tried to force young people off income support, off Newstart, for six months. This government think they can get away with reducing the period to five weeks—four weeks plus the normal one-week wait period. Clearly this Senate has been resisting that and not supporting it. Now they bring it back, supposedly to pay for child care. Even if you accept the premise that child care is all fixed, they are saying, 'We will look after your kids while they need child care, but as soon as they reach the age of being more independent and they look for work and become unemployed, we will not support them.'

Then you look at what they are trying to do to age pensions and portability. They are trying to reduce that to six weeks. Then they will have you believe that they have fixed things by improving the changes they are making to family tax benefits, but young families will still be worse off. Where is the leadership?

'That's right: we're leading by picking on the most vulnerable members of our community, those that are struggling, those that are trying to buy a home, those that are on low incomes. We will still decrease your family tax benefit: if you are on family tax benefit A, by about $8 a fortnight; if you are on family tax benefit B, which is where there are a lot of low-income families, we will reduce it by over $13 a fortnight.' This is not leadership; it is demonising people. It is demonising the most vulnerable members of our community.

Then let's get to Centrelink. What great leadership there! How to lead a complete debacle! Again, it is subjecting people that are trying to rely on our social security safety net to scare tactics, to debt notices, to potentially having to open the door to debt collectors, and to errors in Centrelink which they do not even count.

Today during senators' statements, I read out the accounts of three people who have been affected by this. Great leadership by the Turnbull government: how to pick on and make vulnerable people even more vulnerable; how to make sure that they have more mental health issues. That is what is happening and that is what is being fed to our offices. I am sure those on the government benches have been getting those phone calls—in fact, some of their own are so affected and so concerned that they have been making statements about their concerns. Great leadership, Mr Turnbull!

Where is his leadership in taking the issues to President Trump? It is completely lacking; it is not there. He is failing Australians, and particularly failing those that rely on our social security safety net and families that are struggling to get ahead. We know they are struggling to buy their homes; we know they are facing greater costs of living; we know that inequality in this country is increasing. So he is leading the charge to increase inequality in this country. That is the only thing he is leading on. That is not the way.

By victimising and picking on the most vulnerable in the community, he increases inequality and makes it even harder for people to find work. By keeping young people in poverty and off Newstart for five weeks, he actually makes it harder for them to find work. That is what the evidence shows.

So I support this matter of public importance because the Prime Minister is not— (Time expired)

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

What a great opportunity it is this afternoon to continue to talk about the inability of the Turnbull government to provide any sort of stable leadership of this great nation. What we do know is that Christmas has come and gone but the Christmas presents this government keeps presenting to us and giving us day after day and week after week are stuff-ups. They have had a ghastly start to the year. Mr Turnbull would be feeling, I would say, quite insecure. What we have seen this week in this chamber is Senator Cory Bernardi deserting the Liberal Party. This is one of theirs saying there is no leadership and that they are not giving the leadership that this country so richly deserves.

We do not see this government going out and creating the jobs that it gave a commitment to during the last election; instead, we see them infighting amongst themselves. We have seen no economic strategy. The Prime Minister has no plans for the future of this country, not when it comes to economics—not at all. We have not seen any of those jobs that they promised at the last election. But what we have seen is the absolutely disgusting Centrelink robo-debt debacle which has impacted on everyday Australians.

We all remember the census failure. We know that the ATO was offline for a week. We know that the GP tax and freezing the Medicare levy to GPs has had an enormous impact. And we know that this month is ovarian cancer awareness month. But if you cannot get in to see your GP—and I gave a speech this morning in relation to women making sure that if they do have the symptoms and signs they should go to a GP and should get a second opinion. All I can say is this government has done nothing but cut health. They have cut funding to our schools. We know they want to bring in $100,000 degrees.

It does not matter what media you pick up over the last four or five weeks—in fact, it is probably over the last 18 months, since the Prime Minister has taken over the reins of leadership of the Liberal Party. I would just like to quote from TheSydney Morning Herald journalist Tom Switzer who said on Monday that the Prime Minister 'came to power on a wave of personal popularity, but has lacked conviction' and 'has not lived up to expectations'.

It is the Prime Minister's economic management that has disappointed people the most. We know Mr Turnbull did promise a lot when he knifed Tony Abbott. But he has delivered nothing. In an article in The Australiannot actually a paper that is renowned for supporting this side of the chamber—political editor Dennis Shanahan said:

The senator’s actions are pure disruption and division. He has damaged the Coalition, hurt the Liberal Party and further splintered the choice for conservative voters, …

Bernardi, once again, has destabilised Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, …

… … …

… Bernardi has reopened all the political wounds within the Liberal Party, the Coalition and conservative MPs themselves.

It just keeps going. There is another quote I want to give, from The Daily Telegraph today—and this is all because of Senator Bernardi, who has joined so many others throughout this country. This government is a failure. The Prime Minister is a failure. He has failed the Australian people. The editor's piece in The Daily Telegraph this morning said that Cory Bernardi was 'wrong to leave the party'. It said that Bernardi 'could have made all of the points he did yesterday and been influential in arguing them without leaving the Liberal Party'.

He made very clear the reasons he left the Liberal Party. This is not a government that is living up to the expectations of even their own supporter base. Their attack—when it comes to GPs and having them out campaigning against this government—and we remember what happened with the pathology industry when they came out against them and then they had to come to a quick deal so they would not go out and lose the financial support that they normally get.

But there is one economic plan that this Prime Minister keeps repeating every single opportunity he can, and that is his big plan to give the $50 billion tax cut to the big end of town. We know that he supports the banks. Why does he support the banks? Because they bankrolled the Liberal Party. He is not the only one who bankrolled the Liberal Party; it is also the big banks. But he did not want to have a royal commission into the banks, and they were critical about the royal commission into child sexual exploitation. What have we seen from that? We believe that this government is a failure. The Australian people see them as a failure. Mr Malcolm Turnbull has not delivered on one economic promise. (Time expired)

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

I have to say that Senator Polley has distracted me. I had a whole speech here, prepared with dotpoints. My staffers researched it, and now I have to abandon it—

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, on a point of order?

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

I have done nothing at all to distract the senator. What I have done is to put on record the failings of this government.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

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

I hope the clock was stopped for that. Let me address some of Senator Polley's points. I have been observing this for about 12 months now, particularly during these opportunities pursuant to standing order 75 to listen to the topics that have been chosen by the Australian Labor Party. When you listen to their contributions, there is nothing. There is no contribution. It is just a hollow vessel—complaining, whining and whingeing. I had a bearing like that in the back of my ute a couple of weeks ago. Give it a shot of grease and the noise went away. That is what you and the Labor Party need, Senator Polley: you need a bucket of grease, because all you do is whinge and whine. It is all negative. There is no alternative; there is no 'You don't get it right with education—here's what you should do.'

Senator Polley interjecting—

There is nothing. In question time we never get a question on education. When Kim Carr—when Senator Carr wakes up on the odd occasion we get one on science about once every 18 months. We do not get anything on the economy—

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, on a point of order?

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

I would like to draw to the senator's attention that he should use people's titles in this chamber. He is Senator Carr.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind Senator O'Sullivan to observe the standing orders and refer to senators by their correct titles.

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

I will make every effort. I have made the point before: you always know that you are on the money when the members of the Labor Party stand up to interrupt your delivery. Let's talk about what this government has done, because, unlike yourselves, I am prepared to make a positive contribution. I am not frightened to lay down the programs, initiatives and achievements of this government. They have been enormous. This has been one of the most active governments on delivery for the Australian people that we have seen in my adult lifetime. Let's just run through a few things from my home state of Queensland—

Senator Polley interjecting—

I cannot even hear myself think with Senator Polley going off like polly with a cracker. Our Commonwealth government has just lodged about $10 billion into the upgrade of the Bruce Highway in my home state of Queensland. It will affect dozens upon dozens of communities and, more importantly, the economies of those rural and provincial communities and, in fact, some big, proud cities—Townsville, where the good senator's office is; Cairns; Rockhampton; Bundaberg. The investment by our government is going to almost flood-proof the Bruce Highway. It is going to upgrade it for all those billions of dollars of trade and development that occurs up and down our coastline. We are going to have an efficient method—do not go, Senator Polley, you should listen to some of this—of delivery of goods to our ports to underpin our great terms of trade. We already heard today about the wonderful terms of trade figures that came out on the weekend.

This government delivered the Range Crossing. Under Labor they seesawed, they hummed and haaed for six years. Not one thing did they do towards the development of that terrific initiative to build the Range Crossing so that all the products of our trade-exposed nation—over 70 per cent of what we produce, including 66 per cent of the beef sector, a commodity now worth about $10.5 billion to our economy, to your welfare, to underpinning the wealth of this nation, comes down the Range Crossing. Who was it that built the Range Crossing? That would be this government. That is not taking into account the half a billion dollars spent on the Warrego Highway or the half a billion that is now pledged and is in the planning phase to put beef roads all over the state to create a trunk road network up there that will just enhance this $10.5 billion.

Labor wants to talk about comparisons. Let's talk about things like the live export trade. Let me ask you, Senator Macdonald—I know you do not have a calculator, but I suspect you might get this one—in 2011 how many cattle were exported to Indonesia and other places, the live cattle that underpin the massive beef industry of northern Australia? How many were there? I heard you—there were none, because you brought that trade to its knees. There are thousands—in fact, tens of thousands—of families who continue to have that play through their balances sheets, affecting them. There is a generation of farmers who have lost their farms and businesses; industries that disappeared off the face of the planet in the Northern Territory.

What did we do? We reinstated that trade, and now Australia exports more live cattle into the region than anyone else in the world, restoring—though not for the poor people who fell over or were pushed over by Labor policies—confidence in that marketplace and allowing people to build businesses, with the dignity that comes with that, in northern Australia.

Let's just deal with northern Australia. My good friend here, Senator Macdonald, played a very significant and influential part in an inquiry that our government conducted. Where did it end up? What would Labor have done for northern Australia in the whole time they were there? That would be nothing, starting with an 'n' and finishing with a 'g'. Absolutely nothing. But our government put in place a $5 billion—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

It is good to see you can make a contribution there now that you are no longer the whip, Senator Bilyk. We put a fund of $5 billion in to develop northern Australia, right across the country—

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk, on a point of order?

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan, I may no longer be the deputy whip, but I can certainly still contribute, and you might just want to take note of that.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

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

I might point out to you, Mr Acting Deputy President, that is the fourth failed point of order made by the colleagues on the other side. It is just meant to disrupt my delivery. It really does grind on them when these achievements are listed one after the other after they have had 10 minutes talking in such a nefarious fashion suggesting that this government has not done anything. We roll these achievements out one after the other. We are a government that has a plan. We are a government that told the people of Australia what we would do. They endorsed us. They put us back in power. That is what they did. They rejected this negative, hollow vacuum of a policy arrangement with the Australian Labor Party and the Greens. They are frightened of the Greens. We have seem that in the decline in the vote for the Greens party. I know that it really gets on your goat over that side when we are able to list one project after another—billions of dollars, even in the tough economic climate that you left us.

So let me say this: when we get a statement 'the inability of the Turnbull government to provide stable, united leadership', well, what an absolute nonsense. Those achievements that I have outlined—and I am certain that Senator Macdonald is going to outline a couple hundred more—cannot happen unless you have a stable, majority government well led right across this nation. This nation has benefited from Turnbull and Abbott. It will continue to benefit because of the stability that we bring to the administration of the Commonwealth of the great nation of Australia.

Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister's bad news week will continue when he returns to Sydney. When he goes to his Point Piper mansion on that multimillion dollar street he will have to navigate his way around a giant sinkhole. A giant sinkhole, believe it or not, has opened up. So we have this perfect metaphor. Not only is he falling into a hole in terms of how he is handling his policy work in Canberra; he will literally have to navigate his way around one when he returns to Sydney.

Some people were led to believe that when Malcolm Turnbull became the Prime Minister there would be some good news there—that on climate change and marriage equality things would change, that there would be a trickle-down and, in time, there would be some good outcomes. But on both of these issues he has been gutless. Of course he has continued to be, as he was in his previous job outside parliament, a salesman for the super rich, for privatisation and for profit. That is the driving aspect of this government. That is what they are out to do. That is where the Prime Minister gives leadership—in delivering in that way. He is delivering in a way that brings the hardship, the inequality, the job insecurity, the environmental damage that has now become the hallmark of this government.

I do agree with the analysis that you hear from some that part of Mr Turnbull's problem is that he is locked on to the extreme Right in his party. Yes, that is the case. But it is also the case that the job of the Liberals and Nationals and the job of the Prime Minister is to deliver for their constituency. And their constituency is corporate Australia. Corporate Australia's job, while they are on the earth, is to make profits. How do they increase their profits? They do so by getting this government, the Liberals and Nationals, to weaken environmental standards and labour standards. When workers are not being paid as much and when occupational health and safety conditions are run down, and when you can ignore putting in any standards about clean air and clean water, there will be more profits. That is where this constituency—the big end of town; corporate Australia—is benefiting from the likes of the Prime Minister.

Let's just take industrial relations as an example. This is where you do not see any finesse from the government. It really is a position in which they are out there to smash unions and weaken workers' rights. We saw it so clearly with the Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation. Now, as we have seen this week, we have this disgraceful backflip from Senator Hinch. The government wants to make this very ugly piece of legislation even harsher.

The building code, which is a key part of the ABCC, puts in restrictions on the enterprise bargaining agreements linked with Commonwealth-funded work. This is really worth understanding because it highlights the hypocrisy that you hear from Liberal and National senators and MPs in the other place time and time again. The code prohibits not only union-friendly but: enterprise bargaining agreements from including clauses that encourage the employment of apprentices; requiring employers to look for local workers first; preventing unlimited ordinary working hours; allowing construction workers to have a fair and safe workplace. Remember all those fine speeches that you heard from Minister Cash and from the MPs in the other place? This puts the lie to what they actually stand for. On all those things, how could you disagree with clauses about more apprentices, fair working hours, a safer workplace and more jobs locally? But it goes that far. That is what you end up with. That is what Mr Turnbull is overseeing at every turn.

Then the really big standout: there was Mr Turnbull putting $1.75 million into the Liberal Party to, literally, buy the election. We will be hearing more from Minister Scott on how they are going to clean up political donations. But the furthest they will go is possibly bringing in a ban on overseas donations, and transparency. If we get that, it is all important; very important. But we need to have caps. We need to have limits on the amount of money that can be spent on elections and, certainly, an end to the damaging corporate donations. At the moment, the culture is changing in Australia. We are getting to a point that the super rich like Malcolm Turnbull can buy elections. But it does not look like he can buy his way out of a sinkhole or a policy hole.

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

I intend to use that nomenclature because I still think that should be the case. Sometimes in this chamber there is serious debate that achieves the purpose. More often than not this chamber hears a lot of what can only be described as high farce. And I have to say that this debate today is one of those that is super high farce. First of all, we have Senator Dastyari leading the debate for the Labor Party. Senator Dastyari is a nice enough guy, personally, but why would you put as your party whip someone who got Chinese companies to pay his personal debts? These were not debts to the Labor Party, but his own personal debts. He was dismissed from the front bench for a couple of months and here he is back again leading the Labor Party as a whip. This is the same guy who, when he was General Secretary of New South Wales Labor, looked after Craig Thomson. Remember that crook, that cheat, that guy who I am embarrassed to say was a fellow parliamentarian in the other chamber for a number of years? He told lie after lie and took the hard-earned money of workers and members of the health union, but who stood up for him? Who paid his legal bills? Senator Dastyari, as general secretary of the Australian Labor Party. Yet here he is, promoted to the position of a whip in this chamber and leading the debate.

He led the debate with the massive comment: 'We haven't done any work today, since the parliament has resumed. We sit around trying to find legislation.' I am not sure where Senator Dastyari was today when we passed, after quite significant debate, the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Petroleum Pools and Other Measures) Bill 2016. That debate actually happened, and I do not know where Senator Dastyari was if he is suggesting that we are not debating any legislation in the first full day back in the parliament. Senator Dastyari may not be aware that we are currently dealing with the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Country of Origin) Bill. It is a bill that I have spoken on, but I am not sure whether Senator Dastyari has—he must not have, because he seems to think there has been no legislation discussed in this chamber. The chamber red, the agenda for the chamber, is full of important legislation which this government wants to bring forward and which is getting through the chamber. For that we have to thank the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, the unity of the government and the determination of the government to do positive things for Australia.

I had my staff spend a few hours—it took that long—to get me a list of this government's achievements. I only have 17 minutes today but I have four pages of achievements, so time will permit me to mention only a few of them. Before I start, Senator Dastyari had the hide to talk about Mr Turnbull's leadership. I have had my arguments with Mr Turnbull at times, and because I am in the Liberal Party I am able to do that. Just yesterday I had an argument with him in the party room. But we are allowed to do that in the Liberal Party. We do not get shunned, we do not get sacked and we do not get dismissed if that happens. Senator Dastyari complains about Mr Turnbull but he supports Mr Bill Shorten, the most unimpressive Leader of the Opposition that I have seen in my 26 years in this chamber. I think he is hopeless, I think he shows no leadership at all, I think he is a complete waste of space—as some would say, an oxygen thief—but do not take my word for it; ask the public of Australia. Malcolm Turnbull's approval rating as preferred Prime Minister has gone up, Senator Dastyari, and your leader's has gone down or stayed the same. You have the hide—you have the high farce, I should say—to complain about Mr Turnbull's leadership when you have a leader that the Australian public has no regard for. Long, I might say, may Mr Shorten reign, because as long as Mr Shorten remains your leader—I do not think it will be very long—we are safe. In fact, I am part of the 'keep Bill Shorten' brigade, because the best thing that can happen to our party politically is to make sure that Bill Shorten remains the leader of the alternative government.

I want to be positive about this debate. Senator Dastyari and other Labor speakers say nothing has happened. I know they wish nothing had happened but they will remember, regretfully, as they go home to Sydney every weekend—their union mates belt them around the ears over this—that the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill was passed by this parliament. The Building and Construction Commission bill, admittedly in watered-down form, was passed by this parliament. I know Labor hated that, and I know their union mates who put them in this chamber hated it even more, but these bills have been passed by a government, led by Mr Turnbull, that has shown real leadership and courage. Why did that happen? Because Mr Turnbull had the courage to call a double dissolution. I disagreed with that and I made my views known to Mr Turnbull, but it looks like, in retrospect, perhaps he was right, because those two bills that we went to a double dissolution on have now been passed by the parliament.

I rarely believe what I read in the papers and I believe what I hear on the ABC even less. But from the headlines of TheAustralian this morning, I understand that my colleague Senator Hinch has indicated—as he indicated to a group that I was talking to with him a few weeks or months ago—that he did not quite understand the import of the amendment that he supported in relation to the ABCC bill, which effectively delayed the corruption-fighting element of that bill for two years. If you believe what you read in the paper, Senator Hinch has now agreed to join the government to bring that bill back to what it should have been and stop the corrupt practices of several unions immediately—or in a very short period of time—rather than delaying it for two years.

It would take me more than a day to list the achievements of this government. Although I am a Queensland senator I am passionate about Northern Australia—as Senator O'Sullivan kindly said, it has been a passion of mine for a long time. I will quickly run through some of this government's initiatives.

This is a government that Senator Dastyari says has done nothing. He says that there has been no leadership and that it has achieved nothing. Let me go through this. Under the Beef Roads program, which Senator O'Sullivan mentioned, there are now roads criss-crossing Queensland like never before—since the Fraser years, I have to say. The CRC on northern Australia is about to be announced, I believe, next week. Under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, $5 billion is set aside for cheap loans for infrastructure development in the north. Then there are the water storage proposals. This government has provided $137 million to build the Rockwood dam, a much-needed dam near Rockhampton. There is the Charleston dam near Forsayth. Probably none of you, not even the Queenslanders, would know where Forsayth is. It is a little country town up in the Gulf. There is $10 million for the Charleston dam in that community, which supports a local cattle industry and, I might say, has a very good and productive Indigenous community who will benefit from the dam.

Then you go to Townsville, where my office is, not far from where I live. We have the eastern rail network, with the whole new proposal to bring trains into the Townsville port quickly and efficiently. We have the Townsville stadium, which this government is going to fund. We have the northern Australian plan, which is being implemented step by step. In addition to that, over the last couple of months when parliament has not been sitting I have been moving around Queensland and visiting aged-care homes. The amount of money that goes into aged-care homes is just enormous. There is always a lot more needed, and I have been making submissions to the minister for some of the homes that I have visited. Gee, there are a lot of things going on.

Under Minister Ley—all credit to her; she was a wonderful health minister—the health system was really turned around. We are hearing about achievements all the time. In question time we heard about a drug that has been put on the PBS that used to cost $104,000 per treatment and that now costs $38 per treatment. That is just one. I was involved in another initiative of this government for hepatitis—I can almost call it a hepatitis cure. It is another of those drugs that was available if you had a spare $80,000 to buy the treatment. Under this government you now pay $38. This is the leadership of this government, and Senator Dastyari says nothing has happened.

We have actually stopped the boats. I know the Labor Party hate this and they hate the five-word slogan, but, sorry, it is true: we have stopped the boats. We were criticised by all those holier than thou people in Europe when we were doing this a few years ago. What are those holier than thou countries in Europe now doing? They are making a beeline to our door to find out how we did it. We have done it and every other country in the world is now trying to find out how.

Mr Turnbull showed real leadership in standing up to the President of the United States over the deal that had been made on the illegal maritime arrivals who are now not coming to Australia and never will. But they will go to the United States because of the deal done between Australia and the former President, Mr Obama. The news reports were that President Trump did not want to proceed with the deal. We know the truth of the very robust conversation between Mr Turnbull and President Trump, in which Mr Turnbull was able to ensure that the deal that was made would continue. There we have it: real leadership has been shown at a time when all those opposite can do, particularly the Greens, is whinge about Mr Trump—a democratically elected leader of another country. He was trying to break an agreement that his country had made with Australia. Thanks to Mr Turnbull—we all owe him a debt of gratitude for this—he was able to ensure that the deal stood.

Jobs have been created at Alcoa's Portland aluminium smelter. There is the new agreement with the French to build submarines in Australia. Senator Dastyari talks about this do-nothing government—but how about, just last year, the biggest ever defence white paper, with record spending planned and budgeted for, reversing the running down of our defence forces by the Labor Party. We have finalised the Western Sydney airport project. We have delivered fairer, more sustainable and more flexible superannuation. We have boosted infrastructure through a 15-year plan. We have delivered on northern Australia as promised. We have established the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land. We have banned excessive surcharging by credit card companies. We have employment initiatives that connect veterans with jobs. We have ratified the Paris agreement on climate change—I might say that is one that I am not quite sure was a step in the right direction, but it is something this government has done. Senator Dastyari said that this government has done nothing. We have secured Australia's 25th consecutive year of economic growth. Our growth is faster than that of every other G7 economy. We have introduced legislation to enshrine our border protection laws. We have had to do that up against constant interference from the Greens political party.

We have passed through the lower house the bill to give Australians a say on whether they support same-sex marriage or not. If it had not been for the Greens and the Labor Party in this chamber stopping that legislation, in one month's time we would have had an answer on that. If, as those who want same-sex marriage say, the vote on the plebiscite would have been positive, same-sex couples would have been able to get married the next day. But, thanks to Labor and the Greens, that is one failure that I guess this government has had. Although we tried to get that plebiscite through, thanks to Labor and the Greens that has not happened and we will go through another 10 years of uncertainty. I hope that those who advocate for same-sex marriage thank the Greens and the Labor Party for denying Australians the right to that vote. According to that lobby, it would have passed easily.

We have delivered a personal income tax break to 500,000 middle-income Australians. We have delivered $21 billion of budget repair. We have made bank CEOs answerable to the public through regular appearances before parliamentary committees. We have improved national security. I regret that I only have 45 seconds to go, because I have another two pages of achievements, initiatives and reforms of this government while this ridiculous, comic resolution we are debating today is about no leadership and a government doing nothing.

In my few minutes here I have demonstrated just a few of the many things that this government has achieved under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull and before that under the leadership of Tony Abbott. I ask people listening to this debate to compare the serious debate I have embarked upon to the humour and comic you will get from the other side.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the matter of public importance titled, 'The inability of the Turnbull Government to Provide stable united leadership for all Australians.' But before I go into that, can I say that was 17 minutes of my life I am never going to get back—

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

I know that Senator Macdonald keeps commenting that he has been here for 26 years, but sometimes it is quality not quantity that is important in life. As Senator Macdonald comes back to Canberra and steps into Parliament House, I have this feeling that he steps through the wardrobe, as though he has gone to Narnia or to another land because most of what he said to me was a fiction.

Senator Macdonald started out bagging poor old Senator Dastyari, who has been the deputy whip for the last couple of days, and I am honoured that he has taken the position from me. I am very happy to have supported him in that. To be honest, he has freed me from the shackles—as you would know, Senator Smith—of being a deputy whip. I am glad that he put his hand up for that position.

It has been a really torrid time for the Turnbull government, which is what we are here to speak about today. It is a government at war with itself. It is fraught with its own internal squabbles. It lacks in policy, it lacks in leadership and it lacks in competence to create a brighter future for Australian people. It was bad enough over the summer break that they lost their health minister, who had 29 or 32—and I am happy to be corrected on the exact number—flights to the Gold Coast to buy property at taxpayers' expense. So Minister Ley is no longer the minister because of that, and Senator Macdonald comes in here and preaches to us about things that have happened on this side. Really, I think that is the pot calling the kettle black. It really is just atrocious.

In the Senate we get Senator Sinodinos, who I quite like as a person. I do get on well with Senator Sinodinos. If anyone in this place has the right to say 'I cannot remember' or 'I cannot recall', obviously it is me, because I have had brain surgery. But Senator Sinodinos does not have that excuse. He stood up in an inquiry and said 32 times—if my memory serves me correctly, but once again I am always happy to be corrected—that he could not recall something and now he has a post on the front bench. That is absolutely atrocious.

What we see with the government and with Mr Turnbull in particular is that they are always forced to cave in to the extreme right of the Liberal Party. They are forced to cave in to the right-wing ideologues like Mr Christensen and Senator Abetz and, until yesterday of course, Senator Bernardi, who was calling most of the shots. Although I do think that Senator Bernadi in his position on the crossbench will still call a lot of the shots. They will want his vote. If Senator Bernardi really stopped and thought about things and listened to the way he was being bagged out by a number of his so-called colleagues, he might not really vote with them all that often. But I am sure he will still pull a lot of the strings.

Over the summer break, I actually started to feel sorry for Mr Turnbull. I thought to myself, 'There he is, looking over the waters in his Point Piper mansion, sipping on his cognac and wondering to himself how it all went so wrong.' A lot of people had a lot of faith in Mr Turnbull when he took over from Mr Abbott, and some people on our side even had some faith in Mr Turnbull because we thought he would be progressive and make some changes. But what do we see? We see that he has actually backflipped on all the key things he said he believed in. He backflipped on marriage equality, on reducing carbon pollution, on an Australian republic, on Gonski and on Safe Schools. They all lie in ashes at his feet since he took over as Prime Minister. This government, as we know, is completely dysfunctional, and part of the problem is that instead of rejecting Mr Abbott's policies, Mr Turnbull has doubled down on them. I have to say that the Australian people are pretty dismayed about that. I have people coming to me saying they have voted Liberal all their life but would not do it at the next election. Senator Macdonald was bagging out Mr Shorten, as he so often does—it is just a diatribe—but if he was to listen to people around Australia talk about Mr Turnbull, he might not be quite so disparaging. (Time expired)

Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk was certainly on a roll in relation to this matter, and I rise to make my own humble contribution in relation to the inability of the Turnbull government to provide stable leadership for the benefit of all Australians. In the course of the last half an hour or so I have taken the opportunity to listen to Senator O'Sullivan and Senator Macdonald in relation to their very despondent and limited defence of the performance of the Turnbull government. It is quite clear that Senator's Bernardi's defection yesterday is just the latest example in relation to the disunity and chaos of the Turnbull government.

Leadership is perhaps the most important ingredient to any strong and functional government. But leadership requires a leader to have the courage of their convictions, something the current Prime Minister and the current government is totally lacking. Leadership means you say what you mean and you mean what you say. The Turnbull government's version of leadership is in stark contrast to this. It is characterised by turmoil. I note that back in April last year, seven months into the period of the Turnbull government, Ben Eltham, in New Matilda, noted that Mr Turnbull had notched 17 backflips in seven months. I am not going to go through all of those, but it is quite clear that this is a government that flip-flops from policy to policy.

I also want to make the point that during Senator Macdonald's contribution I thought it was very telling that when asked to defend the achievements of the Turnbull government the first thing Senator Macdonald referred to was an attack on the trade union movement. I suppose the most significant issue they can point to as an achievement of this government is the legislation that goes to tying the hands of the trade union movement in order to prevent it from properly representing the interests of their members. That is I think a very telling aspect of Senator Macdonald's contribution.

In the very limited time left to me I want to comment on a couple of policy backflips that I think are most significant in respect of the development of public policy in Australia—firstly, the whole prospect of significant tax reform, which was raised initially by former Prime Minister Abbott and cruelly dashed by incoming Prime Minister Turnbull, who raised expectations about doing something in relation to this matter. There was the prospect, under Prime Minister Abbott, of a tax white paper to have a very holistic look at the system, building on the intergenerational report, the tax discussion paper that so many organisations made very substantial contributions and submissions to, only to find that Prime Minister Turnbull scrapped that whole process and in the course of the lead-up to the election raised the prospect of a corporate tax cut.

Many of the experts are divided as to whether that will actually provide any significant contribution to the Australian economy. In fact, much of the benefit of that goes to the four major banks—benefits which go to foreign investors, and it is debatable as to whether that is actually going to see more investment in Australia. And of course our system of franked credits in Australia means that the benefit to Australian investors of a corporate tax cut is somewhat neutered. So, whether or not this actually delivers anything is a moot point.

We need a government that is going to take a step forward for us. Every day that this government fails to step forward, Australians are forced to take a step backward. We need a government that will stand up for Australians and put them in the best position to tackle an ever-changing world. We need a government that will ensure that Australians have access to affordable health care and a decent wage. We do not need a government that is riddled with scandals, a government that undermines its own policy agenda and a government that attacks current and former leaders. I also note that the member for Petrie today reiterated the Treasurer's solution on housing affordability by telling young Australians to 'get a better job', despite youth unemployment being at almost 10 per cent in his own electorate. This is a government that needs to do more than slogans— (Time expired)

Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, what an extraordinary week it has been. The resignation of a Liberal Party senator is something that does not happen every day. But when it happens on the basis of that particular senator leaving—on the grounds of his convictions, his philosophy—the government benches, it shows clearly the failure of leadership under Malcolm Turnbull that this government currently finds itself in.

This government has been led by a man who many thought would bring a change to the Abbott era and actually move Australia a little bit more forward in a united fashion and stand for something. But unfortunately what we have seen is the complete opposite. We have seen an individual who has completely sold out on just about everything he once stood for. If we look at the issue of climate change, if we look at the issue of renewable energy, of same-sex marriage, of the republic, of 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act—all of these issues are something the Prime Minister has backflipped on. So it should not really be a surprise, in some senses, that now a Liberal Party senator is defecting to form his own party. I think it is symptomatic, that a number of Liberal Party senators perhaps want to do a similar thing. They are not doing it, perhaps, at this stage, but I am sure they are talking about it.

Now, as you would understand and expect, there are very, very few issues, if any, that Senator Bernardi and I would agree on. In fact, having spent some time in New York at the United Nations with Senator Bernardi, it became clear to me that there is very little that we do agree on. But, having said that, I think there is one thing that I do agree with him on, and that is the way this government has lost its way—the failure of the Turnbull leadership to actually govern for Australia and the fact that Senator Bernardi clearly is resigning from the Liberal Party standing up for what he actually believes in. Clearly he can no longer stomach this leader who has simply wishy-washed about for his whole time in office by parroting views he does not believe and backflipping on anything he once stood for.

So, whilst I wish Senator Bernardi well, it does not bode well for the country that senators within the government are resigning. It is a complete show of no confidence in the Prime Minister. And where does it leave this government in its role governing Australia? I think it is time that those opposite recognise that their strategy has not worked under Malcolm Turnbull. I am sure that some on the government side would be thinking Tony Abbott would do a better job. Well, I think there is only one alternative—and the Australian public are becoming more and more aware of it—and that is a Shorten Labor government.

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

The time for this debate has now expired.