House debates

Thursday, 25 July 2019

Questions without Notice

Morrison Government

3:00 pm

Photo of Dave SharmaDave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on further action the government has taken this week to deliver on its priorities?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting

Mr Bowen interjecting

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Members on my left will cease interjecting or I'll start ejecting. The member for McMahon is warned!

3:01 pm

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

He got a warning at the last election, the member for McMahon.

A government member: They haven't heeded it, though!

They haven't listened to it, though. They got a big warning at the last election. Australians said they didn't want high taxes and they didn't want the Labor Party.

I thank the member for Wentworth for his question. I couldn't be more pleased to see the member for Wentworth sitting on these benches. I commend him for his outstanding maiden speech to the parliament last night.

It's been a big week this week. We've talked a lot about the impact of thuggish unions and their impact on trying to thieve workers' wages. We know a lot about the union movement coming here and trying to kick down doors in Parliament House as we saw back there in 1996, but this week we had a Labor state member of parliament come down and try and kick down the door of a hotel room. That's the sort of behaviour they think is okay in the Labor Party, and we're seeing that in the same way—

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Members on my right! The minister for drought and the Minister for Health, I just refer you to what I said yesterday. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Photo of Mr Tony BurkeMr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | | Hansard source

I accept, with a question like that, it is really hard to not be relevant. The question was as broad as it could possibly be—

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

It certainly was.

Photo of Mr Tony BurkeMr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | | Hansard source

and the Prime Minister has managed to not be relevant to the question.

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I think the Prime Minister has almost concluded his preamble. I would say to those on my left: I'm certainly not going to intervene. Just so I'm really clear, if there's going to be a wall of interjections as the Prime Minister stands up to answer it, I'm going to allow him and ministers to answer those, as I've done in the past. If you lead with your chin, you'd better be ready to deal with it. The Prime Minister has the call.

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

This week in the parliament, once again, our government demonstrated whose side we're on, and it was very clear whose side the Labor Party was on. When it came to the issue of the drought fund on Monday, we came in here and stood up for the farmers, but the Labor Party had to be dragged kicking and screaming to actually support Australian farmers through the establishment of the drought fund. Last October at the Drought Summit—which brought together state and territory leaders and people from all around the country—this was one of the key actions. I'm so pleased that this week we've been able to get the result and have been able to legislate this drought fund, which is part of a $7 billion response by this government to the drought, backing Australian farmers and rural communities and graziers all around the country.

On top of that, we took action just like we did a couple of weeks ago when we took legislation through this parliament to provide tax relief to all Australians through a comprehensive plan. Again, the Labor Party showed they are not on the side of aspirational Australians who want to keep more of what they earn. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming. On this side of the House, we know what we want to do: we want to provide tax relief to hardworking Australians and we want to keep Australians safe. That's why we brought legislation into this parliament that deals with the risk presented by foreign fighters. This is something we have been consistent on as a government, to keep Australians safe. We have taken action on this to ensure we can keep Australians safe in the face of the threat of foreign fighters. We've taken action this week as we bring legislation into this House to ensure that dodgy, militant unions cannot thieve the earnings of workers in this country—that they cannot go and set up these dodgy funds and siphon off the earnings to their mates in all sorts of union funds which end up— (Time expired)