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

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann. I refer to the urgent, unplanned Liberal party room meeting last night which, after an hour, approved new rules in an attempt to stop the Liberal leadership chaos. Just last month, Mr Morrison ruled out changes to the Liberal Party's leadership rules, stating:

John Howard also had this strong view and it is that we represent our elected members of Parliament, they go to Parliament and they elect who their leader is to run their Parliamentary party … we don't have any plans to change our processes …

Does the Prime Minister stand by his statement?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, at the time when the Prime Minister made that statement, we didn't have any plans to change our processes. But guess what? Subsequent to that the leadership team has had a number of conversations about what we should do in order to ensure that the Australian people can have confidence that Scott Morrison, if successful at the next election, will continue to serve as our Prime Minister until the election after that. We asked the whips to come forward with a proposed rule, which they did. It was unanimously endorsed by our Liberal ministers in the Liberal ministry meeting yesterday and also overwhelmingly supported by our party room and by my good friend and valued colleague Senator Stoker, who made that point yesterday in her interview as well.

I know that the Labor Party is very worried, because Mr Shorten's position is much less secure now. All the Labor Party needs is 50 per cent plus one. We know that Mr Albanese has been hanging in the shadows for a very long time, looking to find the 50 per cent plus one that would help secure the leadership change in the Labor Party. We know that the position of the leader of the Liberal Party, as elected Prime Minister, is now a much stronger, more stable position than the position of Mr Shorten, so I'm not surprised by those questions. No doubt Senator Kitching, as a strong advocate and a strong personal supporter of Mr Shorten, will soon be moving a motion in the caucus for the Labor caucus to adopt this Liberal Party rule. Good luck. I wish you good luck because we, of course, are very keen to see Mr Shorten continue all the way to the next election.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Kitching, a supplementary question.

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

Mr Morrison declared that 'regulating for culture is never effective'. I'll read that again: 'regulating for culture is never effective'. Can the minister confirm nothing has changed the culture that has created a chaotic, divided and dysfunctional government?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this side, we are a strong and united Liberal-National party team which has delivered stronger growth, more jobs and lower unemployment, and which is getting the budget back into surplus and sorting out the mess we inherited from the Labor Party. Everybody across Australia knows that when we came into government we inherited from the Labor Party a weakening economy, rising unemployment and a rapidly deteriorating budget position despite all these Labor tax grabs—one after the other; tax grabs that they want to bring back, which would again lead to lower growth, fewer jobs, higher unemployment and lower wages over time.

Our message to the Australian people is that Mr Shorten, as Prime Minister, would make Australia weaker and would make you poorer. Don't vote for him. We will continue to make the Australian economy stronger and create better opportunities for all Australians to get ahead, to get a job, to build a career here in Australia and, indeed, we will ensure that a sound budget position ensures that we can fund all of the important services provided by government.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Kitching, a final supplementary question.

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

The Prime Minister voted against the banking royal commission 26 times before claiming it was his idea. He supported the National Energy Guarantee before opposing it. He opposed Liberal leadership rules but now champions them. How can Australians know when this Prime Minister is actually committed to something, or if he's just pretending?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our Prime Minister is somebody who works every single day to make our economy stronger, create more jobs, get the budget back into surplus, and ensure that Australians can be safe and secure. Senator Kitching asks me about the banking royal commission. Well, guess what? Who initiated the banking royal commission? Who was that? It was Treasurer Morrison. It was Treasurer Morrison who initiated the banking royal commission.

You ask us about the change in rules when it comes to the Liberal Party leadership. Guess what? Mr Morrison, as well as being a strong and effective leader, is also somebody who listens and who acts on what he has learned. We've gone through a process internally within the parliamentary Liberal Party which has led to the change that we announced yesterday. I believe it's a change that has the overwhelming support of the Australian people. It certainly had the overwhelming support of our party room last night. Of course, I'm not surprised the Labor Party is worried.