Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Prime Minister says that economic growth is going up. It's going down. He says that emissions are going down. They're going up. He said Labor voted against defence housing. We voted for it. He said that he's spending $7 billion on the drought—not even close. He falsely impugned former Prime Minister Gillard and did not have the ticker to come in and stand up there and say sorry. Facts are irrelevant. The truth is incidental. Democracy is an inconvenience. Reality is suspended.

But, whenever this Prime Minister is challenged, he is the man from the land of double-down. When his slow-moving minister engages in a playground fight against a local mayor and rubs up against the law, this Prime Minister doubles down and makes a call directly to the New South Wales police commissioner—about an active investigation into one of his ministers. And, when his bill attacking the rights of working Australians fails in the Senate, he doubles down and rams it through this House without a single word of debate. This is a Prime Minister who will always double-down in his own political interests but never double-down in the national interest—an economy which is stagnant, a drought which is ravaging our country. This is a weak Prime Minister. Nothing has changed. The 'everyday man' is a fraud.