Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I just cannot help but make comment about Minister Abetz's answer to me when I asked him about the leadership qualms and what support the Prime Minister has. He said something about me being the only one who seems to be talking about it. I do not know what planet Senator Abetz has been on lately, but, crikey, that is all we have heard about for nearly the last 18 months—it has been absolutely unbelievable. It is incredible. This side of the chamber even had a leadership spill, and they said it was just gossip columnists. I never saw Dennis Shanahan from The Australian as a mad left-wing gossip columnist. But the leadership is all we have heard about since February this year. They can hang their heads really low, but they actually had a leadership spill. In all the history of leaderships spills in this nation, who would have thought that the Prime Minister would have beaten a vacant chair 61 votes to 39! They are an absolute embarrassment. I keep looking at those opposite, but they will not look me in the eye. This is all we hear about. This government is an absolute shambles.

As this mob found out, it is very easy when you are in opposition, but once you get into government you actually have to govern; you have to do things. It was all right being in opposition, when they could just make the stupid announcements and the stupid statements that they did for the six-year tenure of the last government. To go to even more questions that we need to ask, I want to relate a couple of quotes to the Senate. The first is from August 2009, from the Prime Minister, who at the time was the Leader of the Opposition. He said, 'We can be grown-up government in a way that our opponents just can't.' Okay, they can be grown-ups. In June 2010, Mr Scott Morrison—sorry, I do not know what seat he is from—tweeted that 'Labor leadership chatter is all about a government sacking itself for its own poor performance.' All we get in chatter now, through Twitter and through the newspapers, is about that lot over there. No-one is talking about the Labor Party; it is all about this lot in government. How quickly they forget. In August 2010, Mr Abbott said:

I think leadership is knowing what you want to achieve and then purposefully and sensibly taking steps to achieve it, remembering always that you have got to bring people with you—

sorry, I am trying not to laugh—

if you are seeking to be a successful political leader.

Anyone who goes through a ballot with an empty chair and still leaks 39 votes—it is just incredible.

The worst part is that this lot over here say it is just Twitter chatter and gossip columnists. The reason they are being written about, the reason they are talking about themselves, is that we know that there are a significant number of that lot on that side of the chamber, and in the other house on the government benches, that are talking to reporters. They are actually feeding the reporters. Reporters do not make this up. Reporters do not sit there and think, 'How can I be mischievous and make up allegations of a leadership challenge?'

I will tell you what is even better about this, Mr Deputy President—it is not better; it is an absolute embarrassment of our nation—they imploded after about three months of winning government. They have been an absolute disaster and embarrassment for this nation. They cannot look me in the eye. Have a look at them. None of them can. They are looking down pretending to be reading. The best part, which I am absolutely loving about this, is that, in the chatter coming through the papers, they are actually naming who they are going to kill off. They are actually naming who the rising stars are.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are embarrassed about you. Look me in the eye and I will say we're embarrassed about you.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald, remain in your seat.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me tell you lot over there: if you are ever called a rising star, put your head between your legs and kiss your backside goodbye, because that is the kiss of death, I am telling you. There are one or two of them over there whose names are appearing. I will tell you what else they will be doing. They will be sitting there thinking: 'You absolute beauty. I can see myself going up this greasy pole on the way up because I am being mentioned in the paper, so my bike is up for sale.' The fourth estate do not make this up.

I want to quote one more thing to that lot over there who are getting all excited about their names being in the paper for promotion.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where's my name!

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are like me, Senator Williams—you are all right, mate, because you are not trying to climb the greasy pole. I say to that lot over there that, on the way up, you should take note of every set of toes you tread on going up the greasy ladder for promotion, because I will tell you what, you lot who are mentioned in the paper: on the way back down, I can guarantee you that those toes that you trod on all the way up the ladder will be connected to the legs that hold up backsides that you are going to need to kiss on the way back down. And we are making this up! You lot are an absolute embarrassment. (Time expired)

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just find it quite humorous that many of those on the other side who were key film stars in The Killing Seasondo you remember The Killing Season?—

Senator Sterle interjecting—

No, Senator Sterle, you did not get a run.

Senator Sterle interjecting—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Sterle, you are not in your seat.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did not get a gig, and I am sure Senator Sterle did not get a gig, in The Killing Season, but many did. But it is quite amazing how we spend so much time and so much of taxpayers' money in this chamber—on what? On politics. What about looking at the real issues?

We had several questions from our side, today, on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. What does it mean to rural Australia? Quite amazingly, a few weeks ago I hosted two fellers, one from China and one from Hong Kong, who stayed at my farm for two days. We went to the Inverell abattoirs. That is a great business, exporting beef, employing 850 people. When you live in a town with a total population of 12,000 people, and 850 are employed at the local abattoir, that is a big employer—it is the biggest in the district. Of course it is not only about employing people; they are actually going to the cattle sales and bidding on the stock, and now we have record prices for our cattle. Those people from China and Hong Kong said to me, 'We just want to buy what is grown in Australia.' We have a reputation: a clean, green image of good, safe food. They want to buy our wine. They want to buy our dairy products: we are flying fresh milk into China, and it is retailing for up to $8 a litre, which is just tremendous for the dairy industry. And of course this free trade agreement is removing 95 per cent of the tariffs on imports into China within four years. The wine industry has had a terrible oversupply of wine for many years, and I know people who have been pulling their grapevines out—what a tragedy. Now the market is there.

But there are some people in here who cannot see the forest for the trees. They are simply blinded. I will tell you what blinds them: it is a mob called the CFMEU. They blind them with money. The figure mentioned today was $6 million. And this is to the Greens, I might add; it is not just to the Australian Labor Party. The CFMEU is throwing money at the Greens, and they will take it from anywhere—from Mr Graeme Wood of Wotif; he gave $1.58 million; that was the biggest donation in the political history of Australia.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which they withheld from the public.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, exactly. I had to laugh at Mr McKim's speech when he said that there are all these wealthy people who do not own stores and do their business on the internet. How many hotels and how many motels did Mr Graeme Wood own? I would guess: zero. But he was smart—he got on the internet and set up a business, and, when he had made all the money, what did he do? He palmed off the biggest donation in political history in Australia since Federation—and to who? To the Australian Greens, for the 2010 election. That is why Mr McKim's maiden speech was so ironic when he looked at how the Greens were treated.

But I will come back to the subject of answers to questions. We are an exporting nation: 70 per cent of our beef is exported. I have mentioned Bindaree Beef in Inverell. They were telling me that, in December 2012, they sent six containers of beef to China. In December 2013, they sent 60 containers of beef to China—a 10-fold growth in 12 months. And it just keeps coming, as people want to buy our products.

I was critical about Australia when we removed our barriers and tariffs. I was a pig farmer. My brother and I worked pretty hard to build our piggery. We mixed 120 tonnes of cement—and in cement mixers, mind you, instead of bringing a truck in; we could not afford it. We set up our piggery. And then the Labor Party in government allowed the importing of pig meat. It did not do us a lot of good. I was critical, because we had removed all our barriers to trade—there were no quotas and virtually no tariffs—and now we are going around the world and picking them off one by one.

Opposition senators interjecting—

I will just disregard the interjections from the other side, Mr Deputy President; I can hear where they are coming from, so they are worth disregarding totally.

So the situation is: we are getting them to remove their barriers, their tariffs and their quotas, and that is getting us back to a more level playing field. And I do welcome the low Australian dollar, which is also making us more competitive and bringing in more money, especially into the wealth-creating sector of our nation: rural and regional Australia, where the wealth—the primary product—actually originates from. I cannot understand why those opposite are against this. Bob Hawke is not. Bob Carr, the former senator and former trades minister, is not. All the Labor premiers are not. So who has got it wrong? Just the mouthpiece of the CFMEU—that is what Mr Bill Shorten is. You are just the mouthpieces of the trade union movement.

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

I also rise note to speak to the motion take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today, in particular to take note of answers to questions to Senator Abetz around the Prime Minister's leadership. I have to say that Mr Abbott's leadership is well on display out in Canning in the by-election. Just a few weeks ago, just to show how chaotic and dysfunctional the government is, at the start of this campaign, they were throwing any money at that campaign—$1 million the Liberals started to spend out in Canning, to shore up the job of the Prime Minister. Well, it just shows how bad they are at economics, because that $1 million somehow is already being spent, but they now want to get rid of the Prime Minister. So initially the Canning by-election was all about the Prime Minister's job, and now they have spent $1 million in Canning to shore up the Prime Minister's job—the same Prime Minister, the bloke, who they want to get rid of.

Mr Hastie is the Prime Minister's hand-picked candidate, parachuted into the seat of Canning. He cannot even name the main street in Armadale. He does not know it is called Jull Street. He cannot even name the main street.

Mr Abbott continues to behave more like the bullyboy behind the school shed than the Prime Minister of this country, and a swing in Canning on Saturday will be as a direct result of the Prime Minister's leadership. That is why they are so nervous about what is going on in Canning. A million dollars—imagine that! It is probably a record in terms of the spend at a by-election.

But what is wrong with the Prime Minister of the country? He seems to be able to manage to insult everyone. There was the appalling laughter we heard last week at the disgraceful joke told by Mr Dutton, and the comments about people's habits about keeping time, laughed at by the Prime Minister.

Mr Dutton got up and made an apology because somehow he was caught by a microphone. Any leader would say, 'When you make a mistake, own it.' But neither the Prime Minister nor Mr Dutton have stood up and apologised for those appalling comments they made. That, to me, demonstrates the arrogance of the Abbott government. It shows how out of touch they are that they think they can stand there at such an important occasion and make those appalling jokes. Who, really, do they think they are? Then it took another two days before Mr Dutton made that ridiculous apology—an apology because the microphone was on.

But Mr Abbott has a record of insulting people as well. What about the famous comment when he insulted Aboriginal people, particularly in Western Australia, for living in remote communities? He said that that was somehow a 'lifestyle choice'. What about when he showed his hopeless understanding of foreign investment when he said in answering a question at an economic conference in Melbourne that Australia owed its existence to former foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or scarcely settled great south land? That was another ignorant statement that refused to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but also showed his lack of understanding of foreign investment. And there have been numerous insults to women over the last couple of years. There was the famous one when he said,

What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on, are going to go up.

Is that what we expect of the Prime Minister of this country? Is it any wonder there are hardly any women in the cabinet? This is a man who is clearly out of touch.

Today, his leadership is under challenge not this time by the backbench but by his own hand-picked ministers. They are all starting to turn on him. At the end of the day, like the Prime Minister, there is only one job they are interested in protecting and that is their own. Firstly, they were shoring up Canning with $1 million to protect the Prime Minister. But now the ministers are all thinking, 'There is only one way to protect our jobs and that is to get rid of this Prime Minister.' (Time expired)

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers, including the one on leadership. I want to talk about leadership. I was just listening to Senator Lines make the most absurd statements about Andrew Hastie, the Liberal candidate for Canning. I have rarely met a more honourable man or woman who has served this country with such great distinction. I would love those opposite to go and stand in that man's shoes or in the shoes of any of the other members of the SASR and see what they do to serve our nation with distinction. If you want to see leadership, go and see what those men and women do to serve our country.

If those opposite want to talk about money in Canning, let's talk about the hundreds of unionists they have pulled in from all around the country and the millions of dollars that have come in to pay those unionists to intimidate local Canning residents. Let me tell you about Canning. I have been doorknocking in Canning. In fact, I was there with Ken Wyatt last weekend. We were in Kelmscott. Let me tell you: Andrew Hastie understands the local area. People are absolutely thrilled to have somebody to replace Don Randall—who they loved—who will stand up and fight for them. They are thrilled to have somebody like him, because ultimately it is not about the CFMEU and it is not about those opposite; it is about the people of Canning and who they have to represent them.

Let's talk about the leadership of the Prime Minister of this country. Senator Sterle talked about leadership and good government. Let me talk about one of the other responses from Minister Cash on border protection. Let's have a look at what good government looks like and what she was talking about. The protection of our national borders is one of the primary responsibilities of every government.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Linda, what about Abbott?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Instead of just talking about it and passing rude comments over the chamber and making highly personal comments across the chamber, as I have been subjected to again today by Senator Sterle, who seems to have something to say—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you support Abbott?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

let's have a look at it. In six long years under the government of those opposite, Australians witnessed the devastating effect of their weak border protection policies. They lost control of the borders. I will tell you what good leadership does not look like. It does not look like an $11.6 billion budget blow-out on unauthorised arrivals. Fifty thousand people were dehumanised and commoditised by people smugglers in trying to come to this country. That is not good government. Eight hundred boats flooded our shores and, most tragically of all—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you support Abbott?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, you might laugh at this, but 1,200 people drowned and experienced most horrific deaths in our waters. Where were you then?

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I rise on a point of order. There was no way known I was smiling about the tragic drowning of people. Senator Reynolds is misleading those listening. That is an absolute insult. I was not.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle has indicated that he has taken offence at something you have said, Senator Reynolds. If you wish to clarify that, I will give you the call.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will happily clarify that. When I was talking about these issues, Senator Sterle was sitting there very clearly smiling at me. He may not have smiled when 1,200 people drowned as a result of their border protection policies—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I rise on a point of order. I was smiling because we were talking amongst ourselves and then Senator Reynolds went into the tragic drownings and accused me of smiling about that, which could not be further from the truth. She is misleading the Senate. I did not smile about the tragic drownings of asylum seekers.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think Senator Reynolds has indicated that she did not accuse you of smiling because of that, Senator Sterle. That is correct, isn't it, Senator Reynolds?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it is.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Reynolds, for clarifying that. You have the call.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let's talk about good government and losing control of the borders. Not only did it directly result in 1200 people drowning—the most horrific and horrendous deaths—but it also completely undermined our humanitarian program, which we also lost control of. What else did bad government from those opposite look like? It started the building the detention centre revolution with over 17 detention centres built to accommodate the loss of control and the people who flooded into this country. Most shamefully, not only were there 1200 deaths and no candlelight vigils for those 1200 people who died in our waters, but there were 8000 children who went into detention under those opposite—nearly 2000 at one time. That is not good governance.

What does good government look like? We attained it; we taken the tough actions; we have regained control of our borders; we have had not a single death at sea; and not a solitary boat arrival for well over 12 months. Not a single person has been commoditised and dehumanised by people smugglers in that time in trying to get here. We are releasing the majority of children from detention; the majority have already been released. All children from Christmas Island have now been released—the children whom those opposite put in detention. That is not good government! This is good government. Almost all the detention centres that Labor opened have been made redundant. If those opposite do not think that closing detention centres, stopping people dying at sea and regaining control of our borders do not constitute good government, then I, quite frankly, do not know what is. It is no wonder that the country is in such a mess when you were in government—

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can't even mention Abbott's name.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tony Abbott, absolutely—it is his leadership of this government—(Time expired)