Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In taking note of answers given by Senator Cormann today, what he would not acknowledge is that this is a government of the living dead: it is a zombie government. Imagine being in the Liberal party room tomorrow as people look around suspiciously at each other, thinking of the scores they have to settle and the policy documents they have to leak. In fact, just as an aside, I understand that there are so many leaks that media organisations have had to timetable the release of some of them so the papers aren't too bulked up with them! But what we do know about the rabble passing itself off as a government is that they cannot be trusted, even by each other—and certainly not by the Australian people.

But let's examine the Leader of the Government in the Senate. He has always presented well. I don't want to give too many compliments, but he has always been effective in estimates, with an excellent—perhaps natural—stonewalling capacity. But when he retires at some point in the next year, he will be remembered for two things. Firstly, he's doubled the nation's federal debt on his watch as finance minister. And, secondly, he asserted that the former member for Wentworth needed to be axed because he no longer had the numbers.

This is the debt-doubling finance minister who cannot add up. This is the debt-doubling, credit-rating-risking finance minister who needs a new calculator. Perhaps it will have to be a solar-powered one, if that's allowed in the dinosaur Luddite faction of the Western Australian Liberal Right. I hear that in the leadership spill, it was decided that even a spreadsheet was superfluous to keep track of the numbers.

Senator Cormann, though, is an expert in deficits. His candidate for leadership suffered from one. The Leader of the Government in the Senate talked a good game while it lasted, but his career has gone up in a puff of the cigar smoke of which he is so fond. It is, indeed, reminiscent of the cigar smoke of self-congratulation after his first promise-shattering budget. The people of Australia will keep on asking, 'Why?' The only answer we have is from Senator Cormann, and that is that Mr Turnbull did not have the numbers. But given the assertions from several Liberal members of parliament that they only supported the spill to make the Lib spill crisis go away, and even wrote that on the petition, it's clear that the former Prime Minister probably did have the numbers—and certainly did if we add in the ministerial three: Senators Cormann, Cash and Fifield. Mr Turnbull would have survived if they had held true to the word that they had given, especially in Senator Cormann's case in saying that he did support the Prime Minister—support he gave only hours before and day after day, before saying that he did not support the Prime Minister on that fateful day.

There are many things to ask about this government, like, 'What's the go?' but this is the most serious. If Senator Cormann were your local GP, Madam Deputy President, you'd be a little worried. If you went to visit him for a consult about a head cold, he'd take a look at you, shake his head with concern, pronounce you terminal and shoot you in the head before things got worse. The fact is that the former Prime Minister made a fatal error in trusting Senator Cormann. It was a politically fatal mistake, and I think the current Prime Minister, Prime Minister Morrison, should take note of the fact that Senator Cormann is not wearing his Australian flag lapel badge today—proof of potential treachery ahead!

If Senator Cormann had answered the question honestly today, he would have said, 'The reason that Prime Minister Turnbull is no longer the Prime Minister is because I, Senator Cormann—along with Senator Fifield and Senator Cash—sold him out at the last minute.' That was what happened on that fateful Friday. Senator Cormann—the loyal, the honourable Senator Cormann—having made a great show of loyalty to Mr Turnbull, when it came to the crunch, ratted on his leader.

When the votes were cast in the Liberal party room, it became obvious to everyone that if Senator Cormann, with Senator Fifield and Senator Cash, had remained loyal to Mr Turnbull, the spill motion would not have passed and Mr Turnbull would still be Prime Minister today. Apparently, the former Prime Minister's face was a picture of anguish. This is the truth that Senator Cormann was not willing to tell the Senate today.

There is of course a deeper answer to that question, one which Senator Cormann is also not willing or able to give. Instead, we had to get the true answer from Mr Turnbull himself. The answer is that the Liberal Party is riven with division, and riven about energy policy and how to treat colleagues. They are riven on all sorts of matters. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.