Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, Liberal MPs dumped Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a desperate bid to save their own jobs. In doing so, what they made clear to Australians is that the only jobs they are prepared to stand up for are their own, with no-one putting self-interest first more than the member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, has. Where was Malcolm Turnbull, as a senior cabinet minister, when Australia's auto industry was being abandoned by his coalition government and up to 200,000 jobs were being put at risk? Where was Malcolm Turnbull when naval contracts were being awarded overseas and Australia naval shipbuilders across Australia were retrenching hundreds of workers? Where was Malcolm Turnbull when the $50 billion submarine replacement contract was being discussed and turned into a debacle that has left ASC workers in Adelaide in limbo—with no certainty about where, when and by whom the subs will be built? Where was Malcolm Turnbull when Australia's manufacturing sector was being destroyed by his coalition government? And where was Malcolm Turnbull when Australians were being hit with family payment cuts, with health and education cuts, and with pension income cuts?

He was nowhere to be seen or heard. He was happy to see the cuts because it served his self-interest. It was only when the coalition vote in Victoria and South Australia had collapsed that Mr Turnbull emerged—and then only because he saw the opportunity to secure his own ambitions. Australia does not need a Prime Minister who puts his own ambitions first but a Prime Minister who puts the Australian people first and the national interest ahead of his own.