Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers provided to all questions asked by Labor senators today.

Colleagues, as you saw in question time, we concentrated our questions on the role of the Prime Minister over the past week and his changing positions, it seems, on the use of vaccine mandates; the roles of the states in terms of the national reopening plan; and his failure of leadership in denouncing and condemning some of the encroachment of violence into national political debates that we saw through some of the so-called freedom rallies in the past few months, but most particularly in the last two weeks or so, when they have escalated dramatically.

Last week was a new low for this government, and it is almost difficult to say that. We've got a government that, for the last eight years, has been racked with rorts, scandals, waste and mismanagement, but last week there was an opportunity for the Prime Minister to show leadership—there are moments in time, when national debates on policy are being discussed, for leaders to stand up and speak on behalf of the country and in the national interest. What we saw last week—and I know those opposite would like to dress this up as something that it's not, but we all saw it—was the Prime Minister giving a very short address on the matters of violence and protest. He said he didn't like it, he didn't want to see it and it wasn't part of the way we conducted our debates, but then he went on to give a much, much longer presentation, trying to emotionally connect with those elements who were threatening violence against politicians, in this case, but, in other cases, it could be other individuals. He went on to speak of their frustration and how he understood how they were feeling, as a way of empathising and sympathising with how they were conducting themselves—with nooses and threats to kill. This is what we saw last week. I know those opposite would like to pretend it didn't happen, but we all saw it; we listened to the Prime Minister. The message that got sent around the country from the Prime Minister—into people's TVs, their news streams, however they access news—was: 'I don't like this, but I get how you're feeling.'

There are moments when leaders have to stand up and unite the country. I completely reject the assertion by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Birmingham, that this is a Prime Minister who tries to unite the country. That is absolutely untrue. At every juncture we see this Prime Minister picking fights, whether it be the state premiers, who he loves to pick a fight with—Premier Andrews or his personal favourite in Queensland, Premier Palaszczuk, who he likes to attack fairly regularly; I hope it's not because she is the only female premier left, but you are left to wonder. This is a man that picks fights. He seeks to divide. He seeks to tap in and play across the field. It suits him to do this. He has worked it out. It was a calculated political strategy for him to enter the debate the way he did last week. Don't for a minute think he was thinking on his feet; it's absolutely not true. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly what he was saying.

It's dangerous because, while it might be good and in his political interests to do it now, what we know about some of these movements is that they are very hard to control once they are off and running. When you have a Prime Minister that says: 'You know what, guys? I get how you're feeling. I know you're frustrated. All these mean governments that are trying to curtail your freedoms need to get out of your lives; I get that.' That isn't standing up as a Prime Minister should. That isn't acting in the national interest. That is stoking division. It is cosying up to violent extremists who want to divide the country. That's exactly what this Prime Minister is doing, and we will call it out because it is wrong.