Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very happy to rise and make a contribution on this very important matter of public importance. It's an easy subject matter to speak about—relentless negativity and inability to focus on issues that Australians care about. This government is a textbook example of this, from day one—from their first budget, when they sought to rip and tear at the ability of working Australians, retired Australians, people in health and people enjoying reasonable standards in education and expecting a little bit more. They put in place the most horrendous budget. At the time, Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig said to me, 'I've been here a fair while, and six weeks after a budget most people can't recall it. They will never forget this budget. This is the most horrific budget of all time. People will work it out in an eye blink, and they will deal with the people who passed it.' The Hon. Mathias Cormann—who gets a guernsey in almost all of the media these days as a really hardworking gentleman, the epitome of fairness and ability in the coalition—was there with his big glass of wine and his big fat cigar, music playing—Best Day of My Life. When they copped the blowback that was necessarily coming from that horrendous budget, they thought: 'Well, it's easy. All we have to do is blame Labor. We need to pick out someone on the Labor Party side, keep chipping and hammering away, and try to blame Labor, because if we can distract the public, if we can distract the electorate, then perhaps we'll be able to sneak some of this appalling stuff through.'

It's just been a continual, relentless campaign of negativity. It ultimately ended up with Senator McGrath and others conspiring in the dead of night out at Narrabundah or perhaps even a bit further out, at Queanbeyan. They managed to concoct a plan which put paid to Prime Minister Abbott's career, and someone stumbled over the line of an election. We've gone—staggering, really—from pillar to post, with a government that has been unable to articulate a clear, concise, consistent policy to the electorate and gain support for it from all sectors.

We've got the Hon. Simon Birmingham in his role as education minister, who has left no-one offside. He has left no sector in education offside. He has picked a fight with every sector, and he has support from no sector, and he continues in that role. He continues to be a loyal supporter of the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, but the education sector is really a disaster area for the coalition. But then they go on to say Labor would be worse, as if that somehow can absolve them of their responsibility in education. The contender for Prime Minister today, the Hon. Peter Dutton, was voted as the worst health minister in 40 years. I struggle to remember 40 years back, to the minister who beat him as a worse health minister. But the answer is that it's Mr Shorten's fault. That's always the answer to a health problem or an education problem: 'It must be the Labor Party. They'll do you worse. Be under no illusion—as bad as we are, the Labor Party is worse.' I don't think it's cutting through any more. I have run a couple of campaigns, and I'm usually on the brighter side of things. I like to say what good work people do. But—and perhaps Senator the Hon. James McGrath will agree with this—people always get you to run negative. You can't win without a negative. This government runs negative every day, and it is appalling.

The electorate is saying: 'What is going on? We are blessed with natural resources in coal, gas and hydro. Why can't we get something done about the electricity prices?' What is the answer over there? They say, 'NEG.' We should probably should say 'negative'—'Negative, negative, negative.' Then they end up throwing the policy out the window. The Prime Minister goes from saying, 'I have total support in the party room,' to throwing the policy out the window—and probably throwing his minister out with it. You'd have to say that some people do work diligently in their portfolios. They get consensus. They get the Chief Scientist and other experts to come together with a plan—but, politically, they couldn't sell it.

The answer in the chamber is, 'Labor will be worse.' Well, you've got to realise you've been in government long enough now to start owning your policies and your actions, and you have to take responsibility for them. If you've lost 38 polls and you're going to lose 42, the electorate is telling you something. Relentless negativity about your opponents—who don't have the power, by the way—is not gaining you a vote. We don't have the power. You are the government. They are your decisions. You must own them, and you cannot defend bad decisions and bad policy by blaming your opposition. But you—this government—seem to think that that's the way forward. Well, keep going, because it's working for us. The electorate is seeing through it. You have been in power long enough to own your decisions in education and in health.

If there's stagnant wage growth in the economy, I know—the solution must be that we haven't cut taxes enough for big companies and banks! If people can't get a decent wage increase and they're struggling to pay their electricity bills—the solution is that big banks need a tax cut! I note the appalling hypocrisy of the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer, who voted against the banking royal commission, railed against it, said it was all the fault of industry super funds—and then, the other day, came out and started giving the banks a bit of a shove and a bit of a kicking in the media. She said there was appalling behaviour. She used to work for a bank, so she probably knew all about it before the royal commission.

It's amazing that the government continues—like a dog returning to its vomit—on the same path of destruction. But keep doing it, because we're going reasonably well. The polls are looking pretty good for us. Keep going with the debacle you've got going on now. Keep it going right through to September. Actually, I hope you keep it going through to May next year. By then, it'll be 60-40 in the Newspolls—that's if you've still got the National Party in the coalition; they're threatening to join the crossbenches. This relentless negativity and inability to deliver for working Australians, whether it's small business or working families, is amazing, but keep doing it. You're led by a bloke that seems to have the Midas touch in making the wrong call. Whenever there is an opportunity to make a good decision, to show a bit of fortitude, to stand up as a Prime Minister and take some people on, he always folds. I'm not just guessing that. If you go back through Prime Minister Turnbull's history, you will see he has gone the wrong way every time. It has also been, 'If only we could have a plan for diminution of the Leader of the Opposition, if only we could have a plan that makes the Leader of the Opposition look bad, then, somehow or other, our fortunes will revive.'

Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash: 'If only I could nail the CFMEU and get them on something.' I walked around Melbourne the other morning and the place was buzzing. Building sites are overflowing with people working and they enjoy good wage and conditions—safe conditions. I didn't see any of the untoward activity the Hon. Michaelia Cash rails about, as if somehow a contribution in the Senate castigating a section of the union community is going to improve their vote. It doesn't work like that. Most working Australians look at unions as being fair play, fair wages and good access—everybody goes up with the rising tide. If $100 billion is invested in infrastructure in Victoria, people should get a lift out of that, and they do.

But when we come back into the chamber here there is this negativity. I hope you keep going with it, I really do, because it is working for us. After years of government, you can't blame the sins of all of your actions on the opposition. You have to own your own disruption, and that's where you're going. The real question is not who'll be Prime Minister in a month, or six weeks, or two weeks time. The real question is: in the coming election, how many of you will get tossed out and lose your seat in the Senate? You haven't captured government. You've focused on the opposition and haven't played the ball. You haven't been able to articulate your successes. Prime Minister Turnbull's period will go unremarked in history—no great progress, no great plan. (Time expired)