Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

All the Macdonalds I know in Scotland were pretty tough people. I do not know what happened to them when they came to Australia. I think their gene pool was weakened a lot by Senator Macdonald—no toughness in this guy. What a wimp for a Macdonald! I cannot believe it. Anyway, with this Prime Minister, we know what people think of him: he is not up to the job. He is just not up to the job. We know that he is following every move that Senator Bernardi makes, because he knows that Senator Bernardi is determined to bring him down.

Look at what else is happening in Victoria. There is a guy down there called Michael Kroger. All you guys would know Michael Kroger. Is he up there in the gallery? Maybe he is up there. This is what Michael Kroger said about the Prime Minister: a lack of 'economic leadership in the country' is one of the key reasons the party failed at the polls. He knows that you failed. You lot are in absolute disarray. You get no economic policy, you get no leadership. Michael Kroger and the IPA are telling you: 'What a bunch of hopeless, hopeless politicians you are.' He goes on to say, 'There is period of policy confusion.' That is what you have got amongst the Liberals. Here we are seeing more policy confusion from the Liberals—changes to the GST, the ability of the states to raise their own taxes, negative gearing, capital gains tax and superannuation. That was the policy confusion of the Liberals. They are absolutely hopeless. They are pompous in their arrogance and pompous when they are here. No-one is more pompous than Senator Brandis, but even he, I think, is nodding in agreement with Michael Kroger's position. Michael Kroger went on to say there is 'absolute confusion for business and for voters'. He is talking about Liberal policy. He says:

In that period when we were putting things on and off the table and the electorate formed the opinion, 'well if you fellas, if you people, don't know what [you] are doing, that's a problem.

He did say, 'you fellas', because there are not many women over there in the coalition. But he said there was absolute policy confusion. He said:

The electorate got a view that we didn't have a clear idea of where we wanted to take the country in terms of the economy.

This is not Labor saying these things. This is Michael Kroger, one of the key players in the Liberal Party in Victoria. And the IPA are echoing that view.

So the Victorian Liberal Party, Senator Paterson, are not taking the sycophantic position that you are adopting. They are actually calling the Prime Minister out. They are saying he is incompetent; he is not up to the job. And he ain't going to be Prime Minister for too long if the Victorian Liberal Party get their way. That is the reality, so do not come here and give us your speeches with your economic theory from the IPA. Listen to some of the people that understand politics, listen to working-class people that are doing it tough and stop giving us your nonsense economic theory about: 'Everything will be okay if the markets let rip.' (Time expired)