Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann. I refer to reports following the disastrous result for the Liberals in the Victorian election that fingers are being pointed at former Turnbull government minister Michael Sukkar, a Victorian MP, for playing a key role in the former PM's demise, with one Liberal MP saying:

Sukkar is on the nose and that is directly reflected in the state seats that his federal seat overlaps.

Does Mr Morrison agree that those responsible for his elevation to the prime ministership are now facing the electoral consequences?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say very slowly again: on the weekend we had a state election. My very good friend and valued colleague the member for Deakin, Mr Sukkar, is an outstanding representative for his local community in the federal parliament, and at the next election, as he did at the last election, he will be asking the people in Deakin to continue to support his efforts to deliver better outcomes for the people of Deakin and indeed for people right across Australia. Mr Sukkar is a valued member of the Morrison team.

I can see that the Labor Party is getting more and more cocky. Senator Collins has just declared the result in Deakin at the next election. She's giving Antony Green on the ABC a run for his money. We know Mr Shorten's already out there trying to measure for curtains and carpet in the Lodge, as one of his predecessor opposition leaders did 17 or so years ago. Let me tell you: if you continue to be this cocky, the Australian people will not reward you for it. The Australian people will not reward you for this sort of cockiness, as they didn't in 2001.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Collins, a supplementary question.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not Labor Party cockiness that I'm referring to. Senator Hume said that the sacking of former Prime Minister Turnbull 'was driven clearly by Queensland, but there were some Victorians involved and I don't know whether they had their state colleagues front and centre of at the time that that happened, and it is a terrible shame'. Does the Prime Minister agree with Senator Hume?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government continues to focus on advancing the best interests of all Australians. Having inherited from Labor a weakening economy, rising unemployment and a rapidly deteriorating budget position, we've worked very, very hard to turn that situation around because we want Australians today and into the future to have the best possible opportunity to get ahead. Central to all of that are a stronger economy, more jobs and getting the budget back into surplus. That's what we've been working on.

Of course, any change at a federal level to Mr Shorten will make Australia weaker and will make Australians poorer, because your high-taxing, antibusiness politics of envy—the socialist agenda—will lead to less investment, lower growth, fewer jobs, higher unemployment and, on the back of higher unemployment, lower wages. Under Labor, people across Australia would earn less and would have to pay more: pay more tax, pay more for their electricity—you name it.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Collins, a final supplementary question.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given even his own senators think those responsible for his elevation to the prime ministership are to blame for the disastrous result for the Liberals in the Victorian election, when will Mr Morrison explain why Mr Turnbull is no longer the Prime Minister?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I reject the premise of the question. My colleagues have said nothing of the sort. Secondly, the question that Senator Collins tacked on at the end has been answered on many, many occasions. The truth is that, under our system of parliament, to be Prime Minister you have to have the confidence of a majority of the members in your party room, and the majority of members in our party room determined that Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg should be the leader and deputy leader of our party. If you look at the record, that is what I said in this chamber in the question time after those events.