Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Families and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After five years of chaos and division, last night this government managed to provide us with something new. No, it wasn't responsible government. We are used to seeing the coalition lose control of itself. Last night it managed to lose control of the parliament as well. I know that the shenanigans in Canberra may seem a long way from Nowra or Lismore or Grafton. What we are seeing here, though, is a government that is falling apart at the seams. The coalition's inability to get its act together and govern has real consequences for the quality of representation that it provides to everyday Australians.

The coalition started this parliament with a majority in the lower house, and it leaves with a minority. It has lost those members as a consequence of the internal turmoil and fighting that has consumed the Liberal Party. The country is now bearing the cost of that infighting. As we saw last night, the government can't control the parliament and it has decided to cancel it. The Senate will sit just four more days between now and the election. Those lost sitting days could have been spent acting on the royal commission's recommendations to clean up financial services and banking. It could have been spent coming up with a decent climate change policy. It could have been spent coming up with ways to increase wages for ordinary Australians. But instead the government has given up on governing and has cancelled the parliament.

The chaos in Canberra has led to chaos in local electorates. How else can you explain the claims and counterclaims of bullying and intimidation that overtook the Liberal Party preselection for the seat of Gilmore? We now have seen the Prime Minister overriding local branch decision-making to install Warren Mundine, a candidate who is probably best known locally for his longstanding desire to build a nuclear power plant in Jervis Bay. How have they treated the current member? It was recently reported that the government flew the current member for Gilmore, Ann Sudmalis, back to Canberra from her UN trip to New York in fear of losing a vote on the floor of the parliament last year, making her hide in a dark office with the door locked. The electors of Gilmore deserve much better.

The chaos of Canberra has also allowed local members' true nature to shine through. After the Liberal Party rolled former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year, Mr Hogan, the member for Page, stated:

I am making a statement of protest about the revolving door of prime ministers that has been going on for the past 10 years. I will sit on the crossbenches of the chamber and I will reserve my right to vote on bills on a case-by-case basis.

Lofty words. What does it practically mean? Throughout all the chaos of the lost vote last night, no-one from the government ever doubted for one moment how Mr Hogan would vote. He was beside them every step of the way. If the member for Page had the courage of his convictions, he would have joined the member for Chisholm on the crossbench. Instead, Mr Hogan blinked and declared himself an independent Nationals MP—whatever that means. We know what it means. It means he's telling the people in Grafton and Coffs Harbour that he's an independent and he's telling the people in Lismore he's an independent, but to his colleagues back in Canberra he is a solid National Party vote.

The coalition's chaos has brought out the worst. We've seen coalition members being more concerned about their own political survival than about the national interest. This election is a chance for the electors of Gilmore and Page to change that.