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

The Turnbull government is in total chaos and at war with itself. This is a government led by a panicked Prime Minister desperately trying to cling to office by using the expensive stunts of recalling parliament and bringing forward the budget; a government which, since being elected, has replaced every leadership position in its ranks, including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Speaker, the Senate leader and the Chief Government Whip. It is a government in which, to date, 13 of its sitting members either have jumped a sinking ship and announced their retirement or have been dumped by their own party. Regrettably, its destruction does not stop within itself. The Turnbull government has sold out Australian jobs to overseas workers and presided over the demise of Australian car makers, Australian naval shipbuilding and Australia's steel industry. The future of Australia's remaining two steel mills is at risk, along with the livelihoods of thousands of Australian workers, because of the Turnbull government's failure to back Australian steelmakers. The industry minister's claims that preferencing Australian steelmakers breaches trade agreements or that it will create a local steel monopoly are just more excuses from an incompetent government whose only interest is its own future. The people I represent are not being fooled by the Turnbull government's spin.