Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We just saw a bit of a Monty Python skit from those opposite with that performance. The reality of what we've seen today, in question time here and in question time being cancelled in the other place, is that this government is illegitimate. That's what was proved in question time today and that's why they cancelled question time in the House of Representatives. They know that the Australian people know the gig is up. We saw in question time how illegitimate they are. We've seen it through the course of this week in their actions in undermining the elected Prime Minister, and we'll see it in the way things are going to end tomorrow. The reality is that the Liberal Party have proved themselves incapable of being a party of government. No matter the personality issue or the policy issue, they are divided on every single one of them. On every significant policy issue that is of concern to the Australian people, the Liberal Party are divided. There is no leader within the Liberal Party who is actually capable of uniting their team and coming up with policy solutions for the Australian people.

One of the first things that was drummed into me when I first got involved in politics was that if you can't govern yourselves you can't govern your country. That is the Liberal Party this week: they can't govern themselves; they can't govern the country. On every policy issue, they are divided. No matter who becomes the leader after 12 noon tomorrow, they are hopelessly divided. Be it personality or be it policy, this is the Liberal Party in 2018.

What we saw from the slapstick performance from the Leader of the Government in the Senate today was that he could not tell the parliament which ministers had resigned. This is extraordinary: the Leader of the Government in the Senate could not tell the parliament which ministers had resigned. When we look at that, these are the ministers who have resigned; these are the portfolios: Finance, Health, Trade, Jobs, Communications, Human Services, Law Enforcement, and Multicultural Affairs, and we have an acting home affairs minister—not insignificant portfolios. The Leader of the Government in the Senate stood in this chamber today and could not tell us whether there were actual ministers for those portfolios. That's what he said. He came in and said, 'We've got people representing them as senators.' But do we have actual ministers for those portfolios?

They lost all pretence of being a government that actually represents the Australian people. They have been completely consumed by their internal differences, by their personality clashes and by their policy differences. They have given up any pretence that they are actually governing for the Australian people. When it comes to policy dysfunction, that's been on display throughout the course of the last couple of weeks. We know what happened with the National Energy Guarantee. For 12 months they were working on a policy that was solely focused not for the Australian people, not for Australian workers, not for Australian businesses but on getting an energy policy through their backbench, and they still couldn't achieve that after working on it for 12 months. They finally got defeated in relation to the corporate tax—the money they were going to hand out to big banks and big business. They finally lost.

So we end this week basically without a Prime Minister. We know there'll be a contest within the Liberal Party. But we also end this week as a country with no direction from this government. They don't actually have an energy policy at the moment; they can't tell us what it is. They don't actually have an economic plan; they can't tell us what it is. Think about those Australian people who are out there observing this today, and this is the government that is supposed to be representing their interests. For those people who can't afford to pay higher power bills because of the inaction of this government—and the government had five years to do something about that—the government has abandoned them. For those people out there looking for work and looking for a job, the government has abandoned them. For those people who live in regional areas and are concerned about funding the future of their kids through school, the government has abandoned them. On any significant policy area that matters to the Australian people, this government today has abandoned them. The only solution that is available to them, no matter who wins tomorrow, no matter who we end up with as leader—and with each hour that goes past there are more and more people putting their names forward—is to go and call an election. That is the only way this can be solved. The Liberal Party of Australia this week have proven themselves incapable of governing. They can't govern themselves and they absolutely can't govern the country.

Question agreed to.