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

I rise to make my contribution on the motion moved by Senator Liddle to take note of answers given by government ministers to questions from the opposition today. As we have heard through question time and through this debate, what this government does is not to address the issues that are being placed before it through question time. They just continue to deflect, talk about somebody else or blame somebody else. They never talk about the policy that is being considered by the question. They don't have the courage to stand up and talk about their own policies or what they're doing to deal with the issues that are before the chamber at the time. They have a number of reflexes. Firstly, they go personal, then they blame somebody else, and then they talk about something completely different. They don't have the courage to talk about the policies or the issues that are before them.

We saw that a number of times today during question time. We asked a serious question about the safety of Australians and the management of the borders, and all we get from the government is a whole series of rhetoric about what somebody else did, not about the safety of a young girl and how she had been treated or how she felt because of the way the government is managing our borders. It becomes about somebody else. It becomes about somebody who was in a portfolio five, six or seven years ago.

This government will never take responsibility for what it's doing in the way that it's managing these important issues. Australians deserve to feel safe in this country. They deserve to understand that this government is looking after those matters that are important to them, particularly during these uncertain times.

The government talks about social harmony. And yet the first thing that they do when they stand to talk about an issue in this chamber is to yell personal abuse across the chamber. Now, how does that set an example to the rest of the Australian community about how we should behave, how social harmony is important in this place? When a question comes to the minister about an important medical treatment in this country, the first instinct of the minister is to go personal against the shadow. That's the first instinct. It's not to go to what is a really important issue about how young children get access to a very important treatment here in this country—a treatment that has bipartisan support, I might say, and was jointly proposed by both sides of politics nine years ago.

This government has been in government now for nearly four years. They have some responsibility to take, and the Australian people deserve to hear the government addressing the issues that are of concern to them. The government won't talk about their promises. They won't talk about the commitments that they made to the Australian people. They just want to talk about somebody else or yell personal abuse across the chamber.

Let's think about those promises. They promised them cheaper housing. That's what this government promised the Australian people at the 2022 election—cheaper housing. How is that going? Does anyone in this country think they're getting cheaper housing? They promised them higher real wages. Well, the OECD says, according to the latest figures, Australia has experienced the largest collapse in living standards among all developed countries. They promised higher real wages. Higher real wages are, in fact, going backwards under this government and its policies. They promised a lower cost of living. That's not working out so well either. And, of course, they also promised to reduce our power bills by $275 by 2025, and there is no sign of that. In fact, I don't think I've heard a government member utter the words 'two hundred and seventy-five dollars' since 2022. They said it 97 times before the election—not a word of it since. It's about time this government started being honest with the Australian people and addressing the things that are genuinely of concern to them.

Question agreed to.