Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This government has failed to look after the cost-of-living concerns of Australians. But the question underpinning this, the question I think is on the minds of a lot of Australia's now, is: is Tony Abbott the worst Prime Minister Australia has ever seen? In fact, is this the most disappointing Liberal government Australia has ever seen? In order to support the proposition that Tony Abbott is the worst Prime Minister Australians have ever seen I would submit for the consideration of the parliament, and indeed the Australian people, rising unemployment. We had the Minister for Education giving a reasonable impersonation of that famous Iraqi Communications Minister 'Comical Ali' when he said employment was a great argument to justify this government. Well, 100,000 people extra on the unemployment queue really shows what is happening in this country.

It is not just unemployment that is a problem for this government and, more importantly, for Australians. We have seen 11 million Australians have their superannuation payment levels frozen. We have seen $100,000 degrees on the table. Only this misfit Liberal-National government would propose deregulation of universities, and the outcome will be higher prices and fewer people going to university. We have seen them say they are going to be a government for Indigenous Australians, but they have cut half a billion dollars in funding, including very important funding in terms of community legal aid, and Australia has one of the most shameful rates of Indigenous incarceration. We have seen this government—not just the Prime Minister but all the contenders for his job—queue up and say absolutely resolutely that they support the $80 billion in cuts to schools and hospitals contained in that budget. Pensioners have suffered under this government with a cut to their rate and indexation proposed. We have seen this nation go backwards on climate change. We see the $6,000 cuts to family payments. We see this government cutting child care by $1 billion, including very important family day-care programs. That is a significant list of failure by this government.

This government love to lecture the opposition and say they are interested in what real Australians are interested in. I tell you what, real Australians are concerned about rising unemployment, the demise of much of our manufacturing, the extra slugging of pensioners, the GP tax, the $100,000 degrees and the $6,000 cut in payments to families–not to mention the heinous cuts to education and health care. But just in case last week people thought this was the worst government and the worst Prime Minister that we have ever seen, then we had this week. We have got more leaks than the Titanic coming from the government. We have got propositions from the government where they are leaking against each other saying that some people did or did not support the GP tax—although they all support the GP tax. We have even had the Attorney-General, who is hardly noted for his judgement, warning the Prime Minister that the Prime Minister was playing with fire when he was politicising national security—far be it for the opposition to accuse the Prime Minister of politicising national security! But proving that even a stopped clock can be right twice a day, maybe the Attorney-General was onto something.

Not only do we have leaks from within the government, we have got the ultimate bunker-busters coming from the Prime Minister's enemies in the Liberal Party. I have got to meet this fellow, the treasurer of the Liberal Party. He seems to have a lot to say for himself. He emails his 'preferred version' of political violence upon the Prime Minister. But what I am really interested in is seeing whether there are any more emails coming from the treasurer of the Liberal Party. If the treasurer of the Liberal Party will not even back his own Prime Minister and warns there are severe problems in the government, how on earth can the rest of Australia believe this is not the worst government ever. Of course, the Prime Minister is supported by his great band of allies—in case you do not know who I mean, I refer to his frontbench. The Prime Minister is doing more morning TV shows than Kerri-Anne Kennerley. We have got the 'Minister for Backbench Communications'. And, of course, we have got Scott Morrison—the less said the better.

But even more serious than some of the undermining of the Prime Minister from within his ranks—the tsunami of leaks—is the public health scandal which is this inadequate government's inadequate handling of berry contamination. It should not have taken 10 days for this government to decide to test 100 per cent of these berries coming from this region of the world. Twice this week in question time we have asked the Prime Minister about this—since he has apparently got his finger on the pulse of what is going on in Australia. We said to him: how many Australians have been exposed to contaminated berries? He does not know. This hero of our borders cannot tell us how many hundreds of thousands of Australians have potentially been exposed to contaminated berries. But it gets worse than that. He cannot tell us how many people potentially will contract hepatitis A. He cannot even tell the parents of school children in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria whether their children have been exposed. This is a delinquent government asleep at the wheel. But not only are the berries and the leaks problems; we have the shocking ongoing strategic saga of the submarines. Somehow we have a $20 billion or $30 billion contract being promised on the back of an envelope for a couple of tawdry South Australian votes. This is a disgrace.

I actually agree with what the member for Grey said—that is Rowan Ramsey, for those not familiar with him. He is a good man, and I agree with him; and I am going to quote the good man's words from Liberal Party meeting room. He said it was important that these hulls are welded in Australia. Oh, yes, it is, and we will agree to support that proposition. But again we have them jumping through the hoops about what a competitive tender is: what did Kevin Andrews mean? What did David Johnston promise? Where is David Johnston?

What this has shown is that this is the worst, most cynical government we have seen in Australian history, with the worst, most cynical Prime Minister in Australian history. Look at his attitude today, saying, 'No-one really cares if I bully and intimidate the President of the Human Rights Commission. Australians aren't interested in that.' What a thug. What a bully.

I understand that when you are the Prime Minister of Australia you have a marvellous pulpit to articulate a vision for the future. It is a great opportunity to lead this nation in the necessary debates it has, but it is not a pulpit for bullies. It is not a pulpit to intimidate, harass or put undue pressure on an independent statutory office holder. Those pictures yesterday told 1,000 words; they were pictures of Gillian Triggs, independent President of the Human Rights Tribunal, sitting two people down from her assassin—her boss, in one way—the Attorney-General, George Brandis.

It defies credibility, members of the government, that you could be someone who is independently appointed for a fixed period of time and a powerful secretary—to be fair, on instructions from an even more powerful Attorney-General, working at the behest of the most powerful man in Australia—comes to you and says, 'We have no confidence in you but, by the way, we can find you a suitable appointment in some other capacity.' That is an inducement to resign. That is a most inappropriate form of conduct. Sure, this cynical government can say, 'We don't care. It does not matter; no-one cares. When you're in trouble, break glass and bring out Comical Ali, Christopher Pyne, to have a crack.' The truth of the matter is it is much more serious.

We understand that we must support our independent statutory office holders. Which judge is next? Who is next going to feel the weight of Tony Abbott's anger and wrath? What on earth did Gillian Triggs—Professor Gillian Triggs, respected jurist and President of the Human Rights Commission—do to deserve this outlandish attack from this Prime Minister? Yesterday in question time, the Prime Minister made a most undignified, unedifying assault. This worst Prime Minister Australia has ever seen—fresh from wrecking the confidence of Australian business and causing mayhem with his unfair budget—launched what I thought was the worst moment of his political career when he launched that unedifying attack from the position of the most powerful man in Australia. He is the head of the executive branch of Australia and he used the full authority bestowed on him by the Australian people to attack this individual president for writing a report he did not like. He traduced the independence of the Human Rights Commission.

I know, and Australians are reminded, that we have a Prime Minister who is unfit to be the Prime Minister of Australia. He is psychologically unsuited for the task of leadership. He cannot restrain his anger at people who disagree with him. Many have felt his wrath: advocacy groups, climate change advocates, economists, the unions—you name it, this Prime Minister attacks all. The backbenchers, Malcolm Turnbull—everyone has felt his wrath, even the poor old whip, Mr Ruddock.

The real issue here is that we have a Prime Minister who is not focused on the needs of ordinary Australians. He is an arrogant, cynical Prime Minister whose government is taking Australia in the wrong direction, and it needs to stop. (Time expired)

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