Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance before us today on the Abbott government's second anniversary of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division. I want to start with some of the slogans—not all of them, because there are enough of them to fill a book. Remember 'We are on a unity ticket with Gonski'? Who could forget that before the election? 'It doesn't matter who you vote for, we are on this unity ticket on Gonski.' Well, that all fell apart. What about the classic, 'Coal is good for humanity'? Where did that get us? Absolutely nowhere. What about that other classic, 'People have a right to be bigots'? Where has that got us? There was a complete backdown, as there should have been, on those outrageous changes to the Racial Discrimination Act. What about the promises, and indeed the signs and all the commitments, that subs would be built in South Australia? Remember that? They tried to deny it, but we all heard it and we saw the signs—the truth was out there.

What about that absolute insult to people, who find themselves unemployed, and particularly young people in Mandurah—14.6 per cent is the unemployment rate in the seat of Canning. They do nothing about it and in fact they insult people by coming up with titles like 'lifters and leaners'. Remember 'lifters and leaners'? It is not only Labor that is saying that. Lenore Taylor just a few days ago had a classic in The Guardian:

Two years in and the Abbott government remains a clamour of battle slogans in search of a policy purpose.

Everyone says that this government is absolutely incapable of good government and good policy and that it is living in some parallel universe.

All this from the Prime Minister, the bloke who in January knighted Prince Philip. For many Australians that was the end of it; it made us an absolute joke. What about climate change? Under Labor Australia was the world leader in the area of climate change, but now we are an embarrassment. We are chugging along at the bottom of the pile and so much so that President Obama tells us what an embarrassment we are. There is still no science around Direct Action—no scientist has come out to say, 'Good on you, Abbott government, what a great policy.' Why? Because it is just a joke.

What did we see in February? We saw that bungled attempt at changing the prime minister—we will have this kind of leadership battle where many of his ministers and some of the backbench desert him—but somehow he survived and what did he promise? He promised good government. We are still waiting. Two years in, and we are still waiting on good government. The only thing the Prime Minister really cares about is his own job. We saw all those rumours come out of cabinet last week. We saw all those lines coming out of cabinet: 'What we've gotta say, folks, is we're all on message. We're all singing Kombaya and we all have to say what a good government we are.' Fancy somebody writing lines saying: 'Just tell people we're a good government.' Good governments have actions and words, but we have seen none of that from the Abbott government. We certainly have not seen any action.

What about working people? We have seen an unprecedented attack on working people in this country—whether it is their trade unions or their rates of pay. We have seen those opposite clamour to say penalty rates should somehow be taken away. Penalty rates make up 30 per cent of the take-home pay of workers. What do those opposite say? 'Get rid of them.'

They are about reducing the pay of workers by 30 per cent without a blink of their eyes. They think it is a fair thing to take penalty rates off aged-care workers, off hospitality workers, and off cleaners who clean this building late at night or early in the morning. They think it is fair to say to them, 'We are going to take 30 per cent of your pay'.

Well, Australians are no longer fooled, and the big test before us right now is the Canning by-election. ChAFTA is running hot there. They know it and so do we, because every day in this place we have these ridiculous Dorothy Dixer questions about how good it is. The people of Canning are concerned about their jobs, and that is the truth. If those opposite bothered to get out there, if they bothered to drive south of the river, they would hear that for themselves on the doorsteps of voters in Canning. The facade of the Abbott government is well and truly over; people know that it is nothing but a bad government.