Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As the Prime Minister scurries out of the House after another display of hubris and arrogance, I want to pass on to the House a little-known fact. It's a little-known fact that it takes this prime minister twice as long to get to Parliament House from the Lodge than any other prime minister—twice as long as any other prime minister in history. Apparently, it drives his security detail crazy, and you might ask yourself, 'Why would it take the Prime Minister so long to get from the Lodge to Parliament House?' Well, it's because he forces his Comcar drivers to turn left at every intersection. It's a lifetime habit. Every time this prime minister, the member for Grayndler, has to make any decision, he just goes further and further to the left. He'll be in all sorts of trouble when he leaves parliament, doesn't have a Comcar anymore and has to drive his own car, because he'll never give way to the right.

All the dad jokes aside, the career of the most left-wing prime minister in Australian history is summed up in just one quote, and that quote is: 'I like fighting tories; that's what I do.' This prime minister is like the Great Dividing Range of Australian politics. The Prime Minister has become the great divider. He has no interest whatsoever in building a consensus and views every issue through the lens of political opportunism. 'I like fighting tories; that's what I do'—that's the boast of our prime minister. It explains everything about his divisive approach to his parliamentary career and his failure, his complete failure, to govern for all Australians.

There are numerous examples of the Prime Minister as the great divider. As a product of the Labor Left, his career before politics was working for Labor MPs and working for Labor Party officials. He never misses an opportunity to divide and to conquer for political advantage, because, 'I like fighting tories; that's what I do.' This prime minister divided Australians with the Voice. He's divided Australians with his decision to recognise Palestine. He has divided Australians by offending Israel and our most important strategic ally in the United States. He is dividing Australians with his 100 per cent renewables rollout, which is tearing families and communities apart in regional areas. The Prime Minister has widened the city-country divide by cutting regional programs. And he's even created more division in this place by cutting resources for the crossbench and cutting resources for the opposition, because he hates being called out. This prime minister hates being held to account. That's why we have a part-time parliament this year. We have a part-time parliament, sitting for just eight weeks after the election, because this great divider, this prime minister, doesn't want to be held to account. And the list just goes on and on. The Prime Minister divides Australians at every opportunity, between Labor and non-Labor voters.

Regional Australians have been punished the most as the great divider has cut programs. Is it any wonder he was chased out of Ballarat by angry farmers on tractors?

The Prime Minister says he won't BS people, but I wonder, did he tell the people of Ballarat about all the programs he'd cut in his first term as a prime minister? The Building Better Regions program is gone. Roads of Strategic Importance—it's gone. Not only is the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program gone but members opposite turned up to cut the ribbons and unveil the plaques for the projects they didn't fund. Regional Australians didn't vote for this Prime Minister, because he cuts the programs they need. It gets fractionally worse, if you can believe it. In cutting all the coalition-era programs, the Prime Minister decided he'd have his own program, called the Growing Regions Program. It sounds good, but he cut that as well. He cut his own program.

Dividing Australians into those who vote for Labor and those who don't is the modus operandi of the great divider. It's shameless, it's disgraceful and it explains why Labor is loathed throughout most of regional Australia. Yesterday we saw a new low in this House, because the great divider, our Prime Minister, was at it again during question time. He sought to draw some parallels between the farmers in tractors in Ballarat and Neo-Nazis intimidating the Victorian premier. He tried to link the farmers in Ballarat with Neo-Nazis in Melbourne, and created this false parallel—it was a disgraceful slur. It was only when members on this side of the chamber—including the Leader of the Nationals—called him out that the Prime Minister backed away from that disgraceful slur. The Prime Minister is actually trying to link those two activities. That is his basic instinct: 'I like fighting Tories, that's what I do.' He instinctively tries to divide us, and he has no interest in governing for all Australians.

Even after the election, the Prime Minister has continued to stoke division in this place. As the great divider, he has cut the staffing levels for the crossbench and the coalition. Now he's planning to cut speaking opportunities when members on this side of the chamber can raise matters of public importance. There was a motion on the Notice Paper this week that would force the Speaker to allocate three MPIs every fortnight to the government benches. He actually thinks he can have a one-party state in the parliament of Australia. He thinks he can have three MPIs every fortnight, effectively undermining the independence of the Speaker and snubbing years of parliamentary practice in this place. Nothing is beneath the great divider when it comes to pitting those who voted Labor against those who don't vote for Labor. He proudly boasts that he likes fighting Tories. He's going to take away opportunities for members on this sides of the chamber to raise matters of public importance in our own communities. This great divider is allergic to transparency. He's allergic to accountability. It's why we have had this part-time parliament throughout 2025. It's why he thinks he can change the rules of the MPI. The Prime Minister has no respect for the 65 per cent of Australians who didn't give Labor their primary vote at the last election, and instead voted for the coalition, minor party candidates or Independents. He has no interest whatsoever in governing for all Australians.

At the outset I mentioned one of the great divisions created by this Prime Minister during his first term—the Voice. This was an ill-conceived and ill-informed waste of taxpayers' money, a self-indulgent vanity project that was all about the Prime Minister's legacy. On that side of the House, in the Labor Party, they like to mythologise about their former leaders. The Prime Minister just wanted his big moment. Gough Whitlam had Lingiari, Keating had the Redfern speech, Kevin Rudd had the apology—the Prime Minister just wanted his big moment. He didn't care at all that he was dividing Australians in the process. If the Prime Minister were actually interested in governing for all Australians, if he were actually interested in practical outcomes for Indigenous people, he would have channelled all that money and all his energies into practical projects that make a difference to the Closing the Gap targets around health, education and employment outcomes. Instead, the Prime Minister, the great divider, wasted more than $400 million of taxpayers' money on a referendum which just divided Australians even more. Sadly, his politics of division was there for all to see. The Prime Minister was at it again, dividing Australians and forcing Australians to make choices that they didn't want to make, all because he wanted his big moment and wanted the mythology of Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd—the great divider, dividing Australians for base political opportunities.

It concerns me. Australia has never been more divided in my lifetime than it is today. Social cohesion is being undermined every day, and this prime minister is still obsessed with his university-days passion of fighting tories. The lack of leadership by this weak prime minister on key issues has contributed to the violent protests that we've seen across our country. His lack of leadership has undermined social cohesion, and it is causing enormous unrest right across our nation. Our country is heading in the wrong direction under a leader who has absolutely no interest in governing for all Australians. The great divider just wants to keep fighting tories.

See this speech in context