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

Then it was the Turnbull government. Senator Joyce was flicked off the planet altogether. We know that after 100 days of disappointment, 100 days of political cowardice by the Prime Minister and 100 days of backflips by this Prime Minister that all this Prime Minister is doing is thinking about self-preservation. That is the big thing this Prime Minister is looking at: self-preservation. He wakes up in the morning and goes: 'How am I going to survive this day?' It is one day at a time for this weak, jelly-backed Prime Minister. It is one day at a time for the Prime Minister. It has been 100 days of a Prime Minister with no backbone, no ticker and absolutely no authority. That is the problem for this Prime Minister—no ticker, no backbone, no authority and no capacity to be a real Prime Minister.

When I heard I was going to be talking on this matter of public importance, I thought I will look at the dictionary and see what 'achievement' means in the context of Malcolm Turnbull. The definition of achievement is a thing done successfully, with effort, skill and courage. Well, isn't it an oxymoron then to put Turnbull and achievement in the same sentence? He has absolutely no skill. You have only got to look at his political judgement to see his lack of political judgement. He has no skill at all. Courage? Well, I do not think anyone in this country thinks the Prime Minister has either political courage or personal courage. He has absolutely no courage whatsoever. He has certainly got no courage of his own convictions. He has no courage for the things that he thought he would tell people that he stood for. He has absolutely no courage of his convictions. The days of the smart little leather jacket on Q&A are long gone. Those days are long gone for this Prime Minister. He has to get the stetson on, he has to get the R.M. Williams on and he has got to walk to New England and say, 'Barnaby, what next?' That is what he has to do. We know that the National Party will cave in eventually, but they have got a bit going for them at the moment.

We have got a Prime Minister who is a hostage of the extreme right in this country, a hostage of the National Party, and a hostage of people like George Christensen in the lower house. Mr Christensen seems to be calling the shots in the lower house. The Prime Minister is an absolute hostage of the extreme right—a wholly owned subsidiary of the right wing and the extremists in the Liberal-National Party. He has no conviction. He has given up on marriage equality. He has given up on climate change. He has given up on tax. He has given up on the backpacker tax. He has given up on health. He has given up on education.

Let us understand what has really happened here. The policies have not changed. We had this great big knifing of the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Tony Abbott got knifed by Malcolm Turnbull, but I am not sure how he got the courage to do it. He must have had lots of support to do it. I bet he was at the back of the queue when the knives were going in. Other people were doing it. Anyway, the former Prime Minister got knifed, and now the only problem is that former Prime Minister Abbott's policies still reign supreme. The policies are still the same. They are the same policies, which means that all of those opinion polls that showed the Liberal-National Party were all on the nose—those policies are still there, and those opinion polls are still there, because the Liberal-National Party have not changed one jot. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's policies are still the policies that are reigning.

When you look at the Prime Minister you see this defeated person. You see this husk of a politician, who was so devastated on election night he did not have any dignity at all. After the election campaign he got up and, because his ego was so battered, his ego was so bruised, his ego was so diminished, he gave the worst speech ever of anyone on election night in the country. It was the worst we have ever seen!

If I watch him now—this diminished Prime Minister, this husk of a politician with nothing left inside—I think of the Stockholm syndrome. He is hostage to the right wing—under absolute, complete control of the worst elements in the National Party and the Liberal Party. Stockholm syndrome is where whoever is held hostage ends up being sympathetic with their captors. Prime Minster Turnbull: the Patty Hearst of the 45th Parliament. That is what he is. Prime Minister Turnbull is the highest profile hostage since Patty Hearst. He is just a hostage of the worst elements in this parliament.

Go and look at the term 'Stockholm syndrome', because that is what is affecting Malcolm Turnbull. He is an absolute captive of the Stockholm syndrome. Patty Hearst's defence lawyer said she suffered from the Stockholm syndrome. So whenever you hear 'Patty Hearst' think of Malcolm Turnbull. Stockholm syndrome was:

… a term that had been recently coined to explain the apparently irrational feelings of some captives for their captors.

Prime Minister Turnbull has said some weird things about some of the right wingers that have got him under complete control. He has said some weird things, so that fits in with the Stockholm syndrome term.

There are a number of criteria established by psychiatrist Dr Frank Ochberg. He has advised both Scotland Yard and the FBI about the Stockholm syndrome. If you listen to what this is, you just think: 'This is Malcolm Turnbull. This is the Prime Minister.' Criteria No. 1:

… people would experience something terrifying that just comes at them out of the blue. They are certain they are going to die.

Malcolm Turnbull was certain he was going to die on election night, or he would not have behaved in the base fashion that he did. It then goes on to say:

… they experience a type of infantilisation—where, like a child, they are unable to eat, speak or go to the toilet without permission.

Well, that is exactly where this Prime Minister is. He has got to go to George Christensen and say: 'Please can I go to the toilet? Please can I get this policy through? Please can I do anything that might even be the semblance of a progressive policy?' And George Christensen says, 'No.' Mr Joyce says, 'No, you can't.' The Prime Minister cannot do anything without getting approval from the worst elements in this parliament. Then it says:

Small acts of kindness—such as being given food—prompts a "primitive gratitude for the gift of life" …

Well, every day the Prime Minister has to go cap in hand to the right wing of the Liberal-National Party just to get the gift of life, to survive as the Prime Minister. What a weak, hollow husk of a politician this man is.

It says:

… hostages—

and think Prime Minister Turnbull—

experience a powerful primitive positive feeling towards their captors.

So he goes up to say, 'I might even try and like George Christensen today'. So they get this primitive positive feeling towards their captor. They are in denial that this is the person that put them in that situation. In their mind they think this is the person who is going to let them live: 'George Christensen, please let me live.'