Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

It is true that Australians want strong and principled leadership. That leadership is never more important than in a crisis, and that's why that leadership is exactly what the Albanese government has been providing in this crisis. We have taken swift action to put our reserves onshore, to release 20 per cent of those reserves and to change fuel standards so that more of Australia's fuel stays in Australia. We've done a deal to make sure that that fuel gets where it needs to be in the regions. We've got the ACCC to police price gouging. We've appointed a fuel coordinator to work with the states, and, now, the Prime Minister is convening National Cabinet to provide national leadership. Colleagues, this is leadership. This is action. This is taking responsibility in a crisis. This is what serious times require.

As a contrast to the leadership provided by the Prime Minister and the Albanese government, let's do a quick review on the conduct of the Leader of the Opposition during this crisis. Friends, I wouldn't call the way that he has carried on textbook leadership. This is a man who let four out of six Australian refineries close under his leadership, when he was the energy minister, placing Australia in the precarious position that we currently find ourselves in. This is the man who made Australian fuel reserves locate to Texas, where they would have been of no use to us in this crisis. Yet here he is complaining about the current situation as if he had nothing to do with it. The hypocrisy, the gall, the front—you couldn't make it up. In a time of crisis, this leader of the opposition has been playing politics and creating fear. Then he comes into this House and suggests a matter of public importance related to leadership! Well, friends, this is a masterclass in bad leadership from the Leader of the Opposition.

If you want to know why Australians are moving in their droves from the Liberals to One Nation, this is an example of why. They're moving because, in a national crisis, the Leader of the Opposition, a person who purports to be the alternative prime minister, somebody who says they could be in government, is offering no solutions, only slogans and a litany of complaints without a single constructive suggestion. He's big on blame, blank on policy. Australians are looking at this as an alternative party of government and saying: 'If you've got no solutions to the crisis that we're in, if you're unwilling to play any constructive role and if you want to paint yourself as just a party of complaint, then why would I bother voting for you? I may as well vote for the genuine party of complaint, One Nation.' If they want a rock thrower, they'll find a rock thrower in One Nation.

The truth is that that is the reason why Australians are moving in droves from the Liberals to One Nation. If the Liberal Party has abandoned its claim to be a real alternative party of government, then why would any Australian vote for them? In the Labor Party, we are dealing with this challenge. We are in the white water, navigating through choppy currents with decisive action while they are shouting from the bank. The Australian people know that that is not leadership. The Australian people know that they shouldn't invest their vote in a party that doesn't have any solutions, only complaints. That is why they are losing voters to One Nation in droves.

It is a bit hard to take a lecture on leadership from the Leader of the Opposition. Let's walk through some qualities of leadership that any Australian would describe or want some leader to be. One quality of leadership that Australians would want in somebody who claims to be an alternative prime minister of this country is trust. They'd want to know they were voting for someone who they could trust, someone who tells the truth and someone who is upfront. When it comes to that, the Leader of the Opposition has got a little bit of work to do. This is the Leader of the Opposition who, in 2022, when he was the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, because of his incompetence and because of how badly he had stewarded the nation's energy system, left energy prices rising by more than 10 per cent. Instead of being upfront about his failures, telling the truth to the Australian people about the energy bill shock he was about to inflict on them.

Instead of being transparent on 7 April 2022, he amended regulations so that that offer would not be released until after the election. Can you believe it? The energy minister of Australia, on one of the most important issues in his portfolio, immediately before an election, chooses to conceal this information from the Australian people. This man was a minister of the Crown, a man who puts the 'horrific' in 'honorific' and someone who doesn't deserve to hold that role if he can't even be honest about the basic facts in his own portfolio.

Even worse, friends, when he was caught out for this action, when it was revealed that he had hidden this information from the Australian people, instead of being upfront about it, instead of admitting that he'd messed up, that he'd withheld this information from the Australian people, he tried to obfuscate. On 26 October 2022, the Leader of the Opposition was asked if he knew before the election that prices would rise, and he replied, 'No, I didn't.' Then, he told Sky News that the price rise notice was something from the AER, the Australian Energy Regulator, 'It puts it out,' he said, 'not me; it's nothing to do with me. I didn't see it.' Well, this wasn't entirely accurate, friends.

On 1 November, just a few months later, he finally fessed up. Better late than never. He was asked a direct question, 'Did you sign the regulation delaying the notification of the price rise?' in the National Press Club. He finally gave the truth, 'I did,' said the current leader of the opposition. Honesty is an essential element of leadership. Trust in Australia's leaders is an important quality. Integrity is essential to what Australians want in their political leaders, and, consistently, time and time again, the Leader of the Opposition has failed to deliver that honesty, failed to deliver that integrity and failed to gain the trust of the Australian people.

Not only does this Leader of the Opposition lack trust and integrity but he also lacks conviction. This is a man who rose to become the leader of the Liberal Party on the basis of his great crusade to get rid of net zero. That's what he's passionate about. That's what he believes in. When you peel back the onion, right at its core is opposition to net zero. He's a conviction politician. Those convictions have come recently. In 2020, this is what the current leader of the opposition said:

We are obviously committed to global net zero, that's in the Paris Agreement, we absolutely share that commitment … many times we—

have said—

we want to get there as soon as possible.

The person who's claim to the Liberal leadership was his passionate conviction about net zero has only had that conviction for a few years. A few years ago, he was talking up his own trajectory towards that same goal. You couldn't make it up—an energy minister who pursues net zero then dumps it when political expediency suits him and he wants to tear down the leader in front of him, an energy minister who conceals from the Australian people the most important information about their energy price rises, someone who not only conceals it but then misleads the Australian people in relation to that information, and someone who had 22 energy policies during his time as energy minister and didn't stick a single one of them.

This is a person who has been in parliament for a long time with very limited achievements. He's good at coming up with new policies, much less good at delivering them. The only good quality of the Leader of the Opposition is that, I have to say, he does support his colleagues, and this is an important quality of leadership, friends. You want a leader who's slow to criticise and quick to praise. Good leaders are there with encouragement. They recognise colleagues when they do the right thing, and this is something that the Leader of the Opposition certainly has done.

In 2019, when more than a thousand new carparking spaces for commuters were delivered at Campbelltown Station, the Leader of the Opposition was there with a positive, encouraging word on that achievement. He jumped straight on to Facebook: 'Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.'

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