Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry, representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister explain why it is important to exercise good judgement in making decisions about public policy, particularly in relation to reform of the union movement and the rule of law on building and construction sites?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question because I know that he is actually interested in good public policy and exercising good judgement and making good calls. When you want to be the Prime Minister of Australia, as the Leader of the Opposition does, you have to show good judgement. You have to make good calls. You have to be consistent. You actually have to have some character. And the problem we have in politics in Australia today is a Leader of the Opposition who has totally disregarded any pretence of having good character or good judgement.

This week, he led the Labor Party to vote against workers' interests by voting against the Registered Organisations Commission. Next week, he will lead the Labor Party to vote against the Australian Building and Construction Commission. This week, he grotesquely misrepresented the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in order to inflame ethnic tensions in this country, with a total disregard for our multicultural history and the way we live in harmony. Yesterday, he grotesquely misrepresented the Deputy Prime Minister, claiming things about the Deputy Prime Minister and the Murray-Darling Basin that were utterly and totally untrue. This is the pattern that we have had from the Leader of the Opposition since his audacious 'Mediscare' campaign, and it is time he was called out by everyone in politics and in Australia for his total disregard for being the kind of Leader of the Opposition who deserves to even be considered for the prime ministership of Australia.

But perhaps his worst error of judgement was parachuting Kimberley Kitching into the Senate over the objections of his own faction and his senior leaders in his own frontbench team. This is a person referred to the Commonwealth DPP by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption for impersonating union officials. This is a person who could not remember to pay $6½ thousand worth of parking fines. This is a person who was referred to by the Fair Work Commission as an unreliable witness. In fact, when she headed the HSU, the national secretary said they stumbled from crisis to crisis in the Health Services Union. And I am not surprised that the member for Isaacs is hiding in the aisle. The member for Isaacs does not want to be called out. But he is no great fan of Senator Kitching. But we know somebody else who is a big fan, and that is the member for Melbourne Ports. The member for Melbourne Ports said Kitching was of equal stature to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, MP Richard Marles, Senator David Feeney and Workplace Relations and Education Minister Bill Shorten. Kimberley Kitching is of equal stature. Does the member for Isaacs agree with that? Has the member for Isaacs come into the House yet and taken a personal explanation to explain that he did not insist on resigning if she was put into the House? No, because he did. He insisted on resigning and he squibbed it. The member for Grayndler also squibbed it. (Time expired)