Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to make a contribution to this motion to take note of answers given by government ministers to coalition questions during question time. What question time has again demonstrated to the Australian community is that you cannot believe a thing that this government says. When they get into a bit of a corner they revert to the old tactics: ramp up the rhetoric, start calling people names across the chamber and then deflect the blame to somebody else. It doesn't matter who they deflect the blame to; they're just not prepared to take responsibility for their own decisions and their own actions. You see it time and time again. Then they all trot out the talking points. They've read the BS in the talking points so many times that they actually believe it themselves. The fact that the assertions being made by government ministers and senators are not true doesn't seem to mean anything anymore in this place.

We started today with a conversation and a debate about respect in the chamber, and yet what do we get from government ministers across the chamber during question time? We get personal reflections. We get attacks on colleagues on this side of the chamber. Then, of course, Minister Watt—in something that probably only Minister Watt could do—tries to blame the Turnbull government for something that's happening under his watch now. It's as if the last three and a bit years didn't happen. What have the government been doing for the last three or so years while the Bureau of Meteorology has been developing its website? Have they been wandering around blindfolded? Have they been looking at what's going on? How did Minister Watt allow the BOM to suggest that a project that had cost $96 million had cost $4.1 million? He did acknowledge that he was upset about it, but it is just extraordinary that a project of this nature and of this importance to Australians, from a whole range of different perspectives, could be done so wrong. What does Minister Watt try to do? Blame the Turnbull government because they commissioned the project. So what has Labor been doing for the last three and a bit years while the project's been finalised? Who was it that checked up on the project before the website went live to see that it was providing the service that it needed to provide? How can that be the Turnbull government's fault? It is preposterous to suggest that this could be the Turnbull government's fault.

That is why you cannot believe what this government's saying. They do this all the time. It's their stock in trade: ramp up the rhetoric, blame somebody else and distribute the blame to somewhere—it doesn't matter where it goes. And of course, when it comes to the promises that they've made, it's as though they were never made, and they certainly can't be believed. We all remember the 97 times before the 2022 election when the now Prime Minister Albanese and his then shadow ministers promised a $275 reduction in Australians' power bills. What did they do? They spent billions of dollars of taxpayers' money to provide a rebate because they can't meet their promise. They promised the most transparent and open government, and yet they are the worst in history, to the frustration of this entire chamber. You cannot believe a word that this government says. They promised us cheaper housing. How's that going? They promised us a better cost of living, and yet Australians' cost of living is going backwards. On all of these promises that they made, Australians are coming to understand that they cannot believe them, and the government should do better.