Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to confidence and the lack thereof in this government.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to lack of confidence in the government.

I urge the Senate to suspend standing orders so that the Senate can vote on this motion of no confidence in this government. This vote is urgent because no-one can honestly have confidence in this government. We need to put this government out of its misery. This is not just about the text messages; it's because the government cannot keep people safe. It is urgent, because each week 200 people are dying from COVID. For January, that's the highest in the Asia-Pacific region per head of population.

They can't keep people safe from the climate crisis, because they're deliberately making it worse. They can't keep women safe at work, refusing to back all of the recommendations in the safe at work report. We must urgently consider this matter, because the government can't keep people safe from rising inequality. Millions of people are in dangerous insecure work, underpaid, living in unaffordable housing or not having housing at all and struggling to keep their head above water. This is not just about the text messages.

The texts just show what we've all known: these guys are in it for themselves. The Prime Minister would sell out anyone to get ahead, and those texts show that those closest to him know that all too well. During the pandemic, he and this rotten government have undermined the states. They've overseen a crisis in aged care, given false confidence to people and have failed to prepare for life after lockdown. We must urgently suspend standing orders.

Right now, our elders are stuck inside their rooms, and Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton can't agree on how to help. They're fighting for the top job while people drive around trying to find RATs. And, callously, the health minister is claiming that those who have died would have died anyway. This chaos is dangerous, and a fish rots from the head. How can anyone have confidence in this government?

We must consider this urgently, because the government can barely pass legislation. It can't establish an integrity commission. It's too busy to do that one. It's too busy for the Prime Minister to watch Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins speak at the Press Club tomorrow. This government is hanging on by one vote in the House, and it doesn't have the numbers here in the Senate. It can't get real climate action past the National Party. It can't decide whether schools should be allowed to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ kids. It can't even back a wage rise for aged-care workers. All of these issues are putting people's lives at risk. This government cannot keep people safe, and that's exactly why we need to consider this motion of no confidence urgently.

Over the last three summers, people have died because of the failures of this government. People died in climate fuelled bushfires while Mr Morrison went on holiday to Hawaii. He waved coal around in parliament, shouting, 'Don't be scared.' People died in aged-care homes while the responsible minister went to the cricket. In a crisis, in a pandemic, you need clear, honest information from trusted sources. We have been denied that from this government because, as the text messages show, it can't tell the truth. Through the government's trying to take all the credit and push off all the blame, the country has lost all confidence. This Senate chamber must urgently consider this motion because, while the country faced incredible anxiety, stress and uncertainty caused by the global pandemic, the government were more concerned about their own re-election.

We've seen the Prime Minister try to appeal to antivaxxers when it suited him and then lock out sports stars—again, to try to be popular. But we remember what you've said and what you've done, Prime Minister. The people aren't stupid; the polls show that they're onto you. Women don't like being told that they're lucky not to be shot when they speak up. Aged-care residents don't like being told that they were going to die anyway. People who are worried about the climate crisis don't like seeing coal being waved about in parliament. It's not surprising that someone in the cabinet reportedly called him 'a psycho': a man who has a trophy that he awarded himself for stopping the boats full of desperate people seeking safety in Australia, a man who waves coal around in parliament, a man who stands over people to get what he wants. Only a 'horrible, horrible man' could be proud to build a political career on the abuse of honourable people. The former Premier of New South Wales was right; this is a horrible, horrible man.

This government, led by this Prime Minister, cares only about itself. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull knows that. The President of France knows that. Julia Banks knows that. Even Minister Joyce knows that. The Prime Minister is a bully, he's a bigot, he's a liar and he's a fraud. We must urgently consider this vote of no confidence because the people of this country have lost confidence in him and in the government he purports to lead. This government has had a go. They've failed, and now they've got to go.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hate to break it to the Australian Greens, but there is a time and place for this to be considered, and that will be at an election in a few months time. That will be when the Australian people make their decision about who governs and about the constitution of this parliament for the next three years, just as they did a little under three years ago when they re-elected the Morrison government. As much as the Australian Greens may wish to change the normal electoral course, the fact is it's a job for the Australian people at the election. And I know—

An honourable senator: Call the election!

There are the Greens, calling for an early election. I heard Senator Waters earlier, proclaiming what she saw to be the election outcome, talking about the polls, predicting the election outcome, showing the same type of hubris that she did three years ago when she made exactly the same sorts of calls, exactly the same sorts of observations about the polls, only of course to be completely wrong.

We will take nothing for granted when we go to the election in a few months time, but we will welcome the opportunity to stand on our track record of keeping Australians safe and secure through some of the most uncertain times the world has faced—through the most uncertain times, arguably, that most people in this chamber at this point in time have ever lived through. We will stand on a record that sees 1.7 million more Australians in jobs—employed, with the opportunities and the dignity that come from paid work and employment. Today, there are 1.7 million more than when our government was first elected. Incredibly, there has been a recovery and surge of 1.1 million in employment and job numbers since the pandemic of COVID-19 struck and since it disrupted economies and lives in every country around the world. You get a sort of alternative view of history from those opposite—and from the Greens from time to time—who seem to pretend that COVID-19 is happening in isolation here in Australia and ignore many of the comparisons with situations around the rest of the world.

But here in Australia, not without challenge, not without difficulty and not without mistakes, we have nonetheless still seen lower rates of fatalities than global averages in most other comparable nations. We have achieved higher rates of vaccinations than most other comparable nations, and we have secured stronger economic outcomes than most other nations. That's a testament to the work and cooperation of all Australians. We don't stand here as a government proclaiming all of those achievements as exclusively our own. They're the work that came from the earliest decisions that were taken to close Australia's international borders, decisions that Prime Minister Morrison took—before the global pandemic had been declared by the World Health Organization, it was recognised here in Australia. And through that closure of borders we managed to keep most of the earlier, deadlier strains of COVID-19 at bay in Australia—to buy the time for vaccines to be developed and to buy the time for the rollout to occur and to give Australians the opportunity to protect and secure themselves, as they have done in record numbers.

Through that time, our economic response plans have worked. That 1.7 million additional Australians in jobs that have been secured sees one million more Australian women in work as a result. It sees some of the highest women's workforce participation rates that our country has ever seen. It sees unemployment standing at 4.2 per cent, a 13-year low in unemployment. Youth unemployment is at such lows, in part, because of the 220,000 trade apprenticeships that have been generated, operating today as a result of the economic response policies our government has put in place. Australian families and households are dealing with the challenges of COVID with the extra security of lower taxes—there are some 11½ million Australian families enjoying tax relief to the tune of $1½ billion per month in additional income into their households to secure them.

We oppose the suspension of standing orders because this parliament has real business to get on with today, rather than the stunts of the Australian Greens. The Australian people will get to have their say at an election that we will contest, and we will argue strongly in terms of our track record and in terms of our economic plans for the future, and against the type of Labor-Greens alliance that will go to the election and that will, no doubt, if they are successful, work hand in glove, and will see those opposite held to ransom by the likes of Senator Waters.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

enator GALLAGHER (—) (): The Labor Party will be supporting the suspension. Whilst we agree with the Leader of the Government in the Senate that there are important matters before this chamber this week, the competence and capability of the government is right at the top of that list. It gives us no pleasure to say that this is a government that has given up governing, and we have no confidence in this government.

The reason it gives me no pleasure is because, by saying that, we are letting the Australian people down—the Australian people, who rely on government to help them, to give them a hand up and to fix their problems. The government have gone missing. They are so disunified: fighting each other, leaking against each other, attacking their leader, telling the truth about their leader, wanting the Australian people to know what they really think—and, while they're doing that, they're not looking after the Australian people and all the problems that the Australian people are feeling now. There are problems in aged care, where the situation is so dire, with thousands infected with COVID, hundreds dying and staff not able to perform their jobs.

That's the real world out there. People are worried about COVID. People are worried about their kids. People are worried about getting access to the booster. These are people's real worries: how they pay to fill their car up, how they buy their groceries, how they meet the rising cost of living. These are the problems that are out there. The Australian people deserve a government that's going to turn up every day and work on their behalf, and we haven't seen any evidence of that for months from this government. They're missing in action, and their disunity and failure to govern has real-life consequences for the Australian people. That is what angers us, and that is why we are supporting this today. We have no confidence. The Australian people are fast losing any remnant of confidence they had, waking up to stories about psychos and horrible, horrible men and liars and hypocrites and to stories about infighting. They don't want to hear about that. They want a government in place that's going to deal with the real challenges facing this country.

We, as others already have, can go through the list of failures of this government: the rorts; the waste; the billions of dollars of taxpayer funds that have gone into political sandbagging of seats; the climate wars' nine years of inaction and scaremongering, leaving it to future generations to deal with a much bigger issue and a much bigger problem; the constant lying by the Prime Minister; the failure to take responsibility—world leaders have called him out, for goodness' sake; his deputy has called him out—the COVID response; the lack of access to rapid antigen tests. How many of us, as representatives of our communities, have experienced that over summer? No-one could get a RAT and, at the same time, we were being told that you had to get yourself tested if you wanted to do anything. That was fine if you were able to. It was a massive failure. The aged-care minister hopped off to the cricket. I don't have a problem with people going to the cricket—I love the cricket—but I do have a problem with Australia's aged-care minister going to the cricket when people are dying, people are not getting fed, people are not able to have a bath or a shower and staff working there are having the most horrendous experiences. I do have a problem with that. Then I have a Prime Minister who says, 'That's okay. Sure, he copped that criticism; no problem,' while the system is in crisis and falling apart.

We in this place are used to the leadership failures of this Prime Minister. We see them every single day: bushfires, vaccines, aged care, the failure to take responsibility, the blame-shifting to the states—'it's not our fault; it's theirs'—not being straight with people, changing his answer. I remember him saying, 'I really did like electric vehicles. I never said they were going to end the weekend.' Yes, you did, so many times. This is the standard we have set at the top of this government. There is disunity. They cannot solve problems for people if they are too busy fighting themselves, and that is what we are seeing. This Prime Minister is out of touch. He has no understanding of how to deal with the challenges facing the Australian people. They've even given up pretending to govern on behalf of the people of Australia and they should call the election now.

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ruston? Sorry, Senator Roberts, I saw Senator Ruston first.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can clearly tell that the Greens—

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

Mr President, on a point of order: we're all wearing masks in here unless we're speaking. Senator Roberts is sitting there across the chamber not wearing a mask. It's entirely unacceptable. He has already been asked to put on a mask by his fellow senators. Can you please enforce the rule?

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order?

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to address the statement that Senator Whish-Wilson just made.

The:

I'm not sure this is the appropriate time, but—

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He misrepresented what I'm doing. I'd like the opportunity.

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Go ahead, Senator Roberts.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim came over to me earlier and very respectfully and courteously said that Senator Steele-John has a compromised immune system. I said, 'I'm willing to put the mask on,' and I did so. I took the mask off just now because I jumped up to get the call. I'm happy to put it back on, and I will be putting it back on. I did not deliberately ignore Senator McKim. I gave my word to Senator McKim, and that's where it ends. But I point out, as I did to Senator McKim—

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Roberts, I think you've explained your position well. We need to move on now. Thank you very much. Senator Ruston, you have the call.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Clearly we have started the election campaign today. It's particularly disappointing that we can operate respectfully for the 2¾ years of an election term and then, all of a sudden, when the time comes, the Greens decide they're going to pull some sort of childish protest-party stunt. And, really disappointingly, the Labor Party decide that they're going to pile on as well.

The reality is that we have lived in the most unprecedented of times for the last two years. A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic hit the world. If you look at Australia's track record over the last couple of years, we have the highest vaccination rates of just about any country in the world and we have seen a relatively low number of people lose their lives as a result of COVID. That doesn't in any way diminish the pain and suffering of the people who have lost a loved one as a result of COVID, but it does point to the fact that the provisions and the actions taken by this government have reduced the number of people who, sadly, would have died from COVID. But, at the same time as having high vaccination rates and a relatively low death rate, we have also maintained a strong economy, which all of the experts are suggesting is well placed to rebound from the latest strain, omicron, which has had such a devastating effect across Australia in recent months.

There was no rule book for this. I love the heroes of hindsight that come in here, pretending that they could have done this all so much better—because they can look back and learn about the experiences that we have had and undertaken over two years. They sit here and pass judgement. Well, I've got to say: heroes of hindsight are not people that will make good leaders, and, for the sake of this country, I hope that we don't see a situation where the Australian Greens are in partnership with the Labor Party and inflict on the Australian population the kinds of ridiculous behaviour that we've seen in this place, particularly things like this stunt.

I also find it really quite extraordinary to come in here and hear the accusations about lies and dishonesty. There is nothing more dishonest than running a scare campaign, telling older Australians that the coalition government intends to put them on the cashless debit card. You know that's not true. You know that is an absolute abject lie and yet you're more than happy to allow your members to post this kind of stuff on their social media sites. You defend it. There is not a skerrick of truth in what you're running as a campaign. So there is some level of irony in you coming in here and making comments about lies when the fact is that you are lying to the Australian public. You are lying to older Australians, trying to scare them into voting for you in an absolutely shameless campaign. You have no regard whatsoever for older Australians who are scared by the kinds of tactics you use. It is absolutely disgraceful. Maybe you should have a look at some of the things that you're doing.

This government has a proud track record in government. Over the last three years, we have achieved some extraordinary things in extraordinary times. We sit here today with 1.1 million more Australians in work than when the pandemic hit. We stand here today with an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent. I think it was Mr Chalmers who commented, when the pandemic started: 'This government will be judged on how many people become unemployed during the pandemic. You will be singularly judged on unemployment.' Well, with a 4.2 per cent unemployment rate and a prediction by many economists and leading lights in Australia that that number could potentially have a three in front of it by the end of the year, I think that we have probably passed Mr Chalmers's test of making sure that we protected Australians' jobs through the pandemic. We did this because we put in place JobKeeper and supported other Australians with the coronavirus supplement, to help Australians through this pandemic. In doing so, we ensured that our economy was strong and was able to rebound after the pandemic had gone through. So to come in here with these pathetic stunts, as the start of an election campaign, makes the Australian Greens look like the disgrace they really are.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is amazing, isn't it, that the Greens want to call a vote of no confidence. We see the Labor Party adopting the Greens policies. We see the Liberal Party adopting the Greens policies. We see the current Prime Minister, in the previous election campaign, smashing the Labor Party because they were in favour of a 2050 net zero policy. Now it's part of Liberal-National policy. So it looks like the Greens have no confidence in a government that is adopting Greens policies.

The Greens support forcibly injecting people against their will. The Greens have no data with which to back their climate claims, which are now impoverishing people and threatening coalminers' jobs in the Hunter Valley and in Queensland—a major part of Queensland's economy. They will stump the whole economy if we follow the path the government is going down. The Greens lie. They say the temperatures are rising—the temperatures have been flat since 1995, once one compensates for El Nino and La Nina. They are impoverishing the poor and misleading the country. So I have very little confidence in the government but even less confidence in the Labor-Greens alternative.

The Prime Minister, leading the government, says that there are no vaccine mandates in this country. That is a lie. It's a dishonest government. Senator Birmingham, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, said that the government has presided over lower fatalities—another falsity. Taiwan has just skittled us in the way it protected its vulnerable people and those with COVID. It has a much lower fatality rate—ours is 4.5 times higher than Taiwan's—because it has a management plan for the virus. Senator Birmingham said, 'We have higher injection rates,' and he was proud of that, proud of coercing everyday Australians, forcing them to get an injection by denying their kids food.

I was at a protest last week in Brisbane. The protest leader went over to the police supervising us, and the police said, 'Keep going, we've got to get away from this control.' One of the policemen said he was injected. The protest leader, Dan McDonald—a wonderful emergency services worker—said, 'How do you feel?' I will always remember this: a grown man saying 'owned'. He feels owned. What a debilitating thing for any man or woman to say. Yet I can understand that. That's not his fault. He has to put food on the table for his kids. It's this government's fault, ably supported by Labor and the Greens.

There is no plan for managing COVID. It's been completely mismanaged. They've abandoned the vulnerable. They've abandoned the desperate. They've withdrawn Australian citizens' access to a proven treatment, ivermectin. This is the first time in our country's history when healthy people have been forcibly injected. It's the first time when healthy people have been injected with something that can kill them—and is killing them—and it's the first time a government has withdrawn a treatment that is proven to be safe, effective and affordable. This is a government in which I have very little faith, but it's a government that shines because it hasn't quite adopted the Greens policies.

I oppose Senator Waters's motion to suspend standing orders, because it will have no effect. It's a stunt. It gives her time to misrepresent reality, yet again, and Senator Hanson and I do not vote for stunts. We will be opposing this suspension of standing orders.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion to suspend standing orders. During this great COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian community—disabled people, older Australians, First Nations peoples, young people—needed their government. They needed their government to listen to them and to act to provide help. And over the last two years this Morrison government, time and time again, have failed. They have let the Australian community down. The Australian community said, 'Let us have vaccinations. Let them get to the people that need them. Let's get it in quick; let's learn from the failures of other jurisdictions around the world as they battled the pandemic,' and the Morrison government let us down. The Australian community said, 'Let us have income supports so that we can focus on getting better, rather than worrying about where our next meal comes from,' and the Morrison government let the community down. The community said, 'Let us access, for everyone, the basics that we need to be safe during the pandemic. Let us access RATs and masks and proper ventilation in our schools to keep our kids safe,' and the Morrison government let the community down. Failure compounded failure, and the outcome was people put at risk and people dying.

Disabled people in this country will never forgive this feckless government for its disgraceful failure to keep that community safe, to keep our community safe. We will never forgive you, nor will the older Australians of this country, nor will the First Nations peoples of this country and nor will the immunocompromised of this country, for propagating the absolute lie, the total misrepresentation, that it is acceptable for our lives to be lost in this pandemic and that anybody with an underlying condition can be and should be written off as collateral damage. You have done so much harm in your time here. So much good work that needed to be done has gone undone. So much time has been squandered. The work of so many dedicated community members during this pandemic, attempting to keep each other safe, has been undermined by the reality that this government sees human lives far more in dollars and cents than it does in inherent human value.

For all these reasons and so much more, this government divided, this government benighted, this government failed and rambling into ruin, must now be swept from this place. A lack of confidence does not nearly cover it. Condemnation and allocation to the dustbin of history is all that you deserve. May you go there and never be thought of nor spoken of again.

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the suspension of standing orders be agreed to.