Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The minister has been asked important questions that go to her capacity and her performance in her portfolio. She's been asked about delays to her long-awaited dairy code. She's been asked why her backbench is taking matters into their own hands and going straight to industry themselves in search for solutions. She's been asked how her dairy code has 'dudded' farmers—that's a quote from her own side, not from the Australian Labor Party—and how her dairy code has caused leadership rumblings in her own party. She's been asked today why meetings about solutions for farmers are being held by the Nationals without the Minister for Agriculture even being invited. She's been asked today about growing tensions in her own party room about her leadership.

These are questions that result from her performance in this portfolio, a critical portfolio for Australian farmers and, of course, for many communities. At a time when hundreds of dairy farmers are being forced to leave the land, these questions raise really serious issues about the minister's capacity to come up with solutions. They raise serious issues about her capacity to manage her portfolio and they raise serious issues around this minister's leadership. What we've heard from the minister today in answer to our questions are statements along the lines that she supports dairy farmers and that she acknowledges that dairy farmers are doing it tough. She says that she is confident in her ability to deliver, but the question is: is her party confident in her ability to deliver? Are Australian dairy farmers confident in this minister's ability to deliver? Is the community confident in her ability to deliver?

Today Senator McKenzie's answers are really all just words. This minister is all delay and no action. Now we're seeing a revolt in the Nationals, in her own party, against her performance in this portfolio. When you listen to the comments made by Senator Seselja today as well, even he has failed to back her in. All he could do today, in his efforts, was attack the record of the Australian Labor Party, but what we're asking about today is Senator McKenzie's record. We're asking about her record, her accountability to the Australian people and her accountability to Australian dairy farmers.

It seems that, yet again, the junior partner of the coalition is in quite some strife. We know that this government is used to airing their dirty laundry publicly when it comes to their leaders, and they're not shy about kicking them out either. But the fact that we have yet another member of the National's leadership team with a question mark over her leadership is absolutely unbelievable. Let's face it, after her answers to our questions we are no closer to finding out whether she actually does have the true confidence of her colleagues and her party room. It certainly doesn't look like she does from the commentary of her own party over the last few weeks.

Over the last few weeks we've seen, time and time again, examples of Nationals senators and MPs publicly calling the minister out. They've been calling her out on her record, going behind her back, bypassing her and even refusing to rule out a challenge to her leadership position. That is where we are with the Nationals today. If this is the level of confidence in the minister from her own party, how can the parliament and the public be confident in her ability to do her job?

We are really yet to see any meaningful action on the crisis facing dairy farmers today from this minister. This is an industry that is in crisis, and what they don't need is a minister in crisis, they don't need a National Party in crisis and they don't need a government in crisis. (Time expired)