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representatives vote 2018-09-12#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2018-09-14 14:46:45
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Title
Motions — Morrison Government- Motions - Morrison Government - Suspend rules to let vote happen
Description
<p class="speaker">Chris Bowen</p><p>I seek leave to move the following motion:</p><p class="italic">That the House:</p>- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debates/?id=2018-09-12.8.2) to suspend the rules to allow a vote to happen, which means the vote doesn't take place. In parliamentary jargon, they voted against suspending [standing and sessional orders](https://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html).
<p class="italic">(1) notes:</p><p class="italic">(a) today’s media reports that the now Prime Minister abused the Tasmanian Treasurer in an expletive-laden tirade after being accused of short-changing Tasmania on the GST;</p><p class="italic">(b) this reported conduct is an insult to Tasmania and falls below the high standards expected of Ministers under the Prime Minister’s own Ministerial Standards;</p><p class="italic">(c) this is just the latest leak in an almost daily series of leaks from within this divided, unstable and illegitimate Government; and</p><p class="italic">(d) despite the Government being consumed by claims and counter-claims of bullying within its own ranks, the Prime Minister continued to deny that bullying has occurred; and</p><p class="italic">(2) condemns the Government for:</p><p class="italic">(a) fighting itself instead of focusing on the needs of Australians; and</p><p class="italic">(b) reducing the Government to what the Prime Minister has himself described as a Muppet Show.</p><p>Leave not granted.</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for McMahon from moving the following motion immediately:</p><p class="italic">That the House:</p><p class="italic">(1) notes:</p><p class="italic">(a)   today's media reports that the now Prime Minister abused the Tasmanian Treasurer in an expletive-laden tirade after being accused of short-changing Tasmania on the GST;</p><p class="italic">(b)   this reported conduct is an insult to Tasmania and falls below the high standards expected of ministers under the Prime Minister's own ministerial standards;</p><p class="italic">(c)   this is just the latest leak in an almost daily series of leaks from within this divided, unstable and illegitimate government; and</p><p class="italic">(d)   despite the government being consumed by claims and counterclaims of bullying within its own ranks, the Prime Minister continues to deny that bullying has occurred; and</p><p class="italic">(2) condemns the government for:</p><p class="italic">(a)   fighting itself instead of focusing on the needs of Australians; and</p><p class="italic">(b)   reducing the government to what the Prime Minister has himself described as a muppet show.</p><p>Mr Speaker, we now know what the new Prime Minister really thinks of Tasmanians. We know what he thinks of the Treasurer of Tasmania, but we also know what he thinks of every single Tasmanian. He didn't tell the people of Braddon what he thought of them on his single solitary trip to Tasmania during the by-election campaign. He said nice things about Tasmanians there. But, when he was on the telephone to the Treasurer, in the privacy of his own office, he had a different form of words.</p><p>I have a great deal of respect for the institution and the dignity of the parliament so I am not going to quote the Prime Minister directly—I'm sure you would agree with that decision—I will just say that the language was inappropriate and would be unfit to be mentioned in this House. But the Prime Minister thought it was fit to use that language to the Treasurer of Tasmania.</p><p>We know why, perhaps, this new Prime Minister has been to Germany more times in his term than he has been to Tasmania. He really thinks that Tasmanians are mendicants, beggars. He thinks that the Tasmanians waiting at Hobart Hospital are beggars. He thinks that Tasmanians who dare to dream of going to the University of Tasmania are beggars. He thinks that those Tasmanians who want a good quality education for their children are beggars. That's what the now Prime Minister thinks of the people of Tasmania. That's what he thinks of the people of the state of Tasmania.</p><p>It also tells us about the state of the Morrison government. I hazard a guess: I don't think this leak came from the Apple Isle. I think this leak came from the Big Apple. I think the former Prime Minister has worked out that his loyal Treasurer was undermining him the whole time. He has told us at the dispatch box—we've asked him, 'Why is Malcolm Turnbull no longer the Prime Minister of Australia?' His answer in effect is: 'Well, I don't know, because it wasn't me. I had nothing to do with it. I turned up at the Liberal Party room and the next thing I knew I was Prime Minister of Australia. It was all a big surprise.' His defence is: 'I walked in as the Treasurer; I walked out as Prime Minister and I'm still not quite sure how it happened.' He's got form, of course, because he did it before to Tony Abbott. We know how this bloke operates. But, more importantly, the Liberal Party knows how he operates. What it also means is that this will continue. He says the curtain has come down on the muppet show. Well, it is actually only opening night when it comes to the dysfunction of this government. They are riven with disunity. We are going to see these leaks continue—another day, another leak.</p><p>We should be focused as a parliament. But, while this government should be focused on the needs of Tasmanians, Western Australians, South Australians—goodness knows what he thinks of South Australia if that's what he thinks of Tasmanians—this government are focused on themselves. They are focused on one job and one job alone: trying to save the prime ministership of Australia.</p><p>Australians deserve better than this. Tasmanians deserve better than this. They deserve a government focused on low wages growth. They deserve a government focused on economic growth. They deserve a government focused on better funding for schools and hospitals. They deserve a government that is focused on more fairness in our taxation system. They deserve a government focused on the future, not on the past battles within the Liberal Party. They deserve a government which knows who should be the Prime Minister of Australia and that should be the member for Maribyrnong. They deserve a government that knows who should be in the cabinet of Australia and that should be the people chosen by the Labor Party caucus, because we have the vision for Australia and for Australians' needs. We're not interested in the factional fights of the Liberal Party. We're interested in the long-term, best interests of the Australian people. That's the sort of government Australia needs.</p><p>Nobody is suggesting that the challenges facing Australia are easy. I'm not suggesting that the matter of GST distribution is easy. I hazard to say that I understand better than most just what a complicated issue it is. There are legitimate concerns of the people of Tasmania and of the people of Western Australia. These concerns are legitimate. We in the Labor Party have taken the issue seriously. We've spent the time, talking in good faith to our Western Australian colleagues and to our Tasmanian colleagues, working on the issue and coming up with a concrete solution. We've been working with state governments, with the Treasurer of Western Australia, with the shadow Treasurer of Tasmania, and, indeed, with people across the political aisle to find the right solution, because it is a problem, because it is a challenge and because it should be fixed.</p><p>The people of Tasmania shouldn't pay the price, and nor should the people of Western Australia. The people of Western Australia have a legitimate concern, and the Labor Party has moved to fix it. My point is that we've done so because it's an important issue. We haven't been dragged there because of the political pressure. We haven't tried to come up with a retrofitted solution and, along the way, insulted the Treasurer of one of Australia's states. A Liberal Party Treasurer was insulted by the then Liberal Party federal Treasurer. Goodness know how he talks to Labor Treasurers, Mr Speaker. Goodness knows what he says to Labor Treasurers. There is how he treats his own state Liberal Party Treasurer.</p> <p class="speaker">Josh Wilson</p><p>He was trying to be authentic!</p> <p class="speaker">Chris Bowen</p><p>It was a very authentic phone call. I pay respects to the member for Fremantle. It was a very authentic phone call, as we now know. We now know what he really thinks. We now know his true temperament. We now know what really makes him tick when it comes to big issues facing the Australian people. It's all about the politics for this bloke. It is all about the internal Liberal Party politics. You can take him out of the state directorship of the Liberal Party, but you can't take the state directorship of the Liberal Party out of him. He's still, at heart, a state director of the Liberal Party, not a Prime Minister for all Australians. He's certainly not a Prime Minister for all Tasmanians—not for the Treasurer of Tasmania, nor for all Tasmanians.</p><p>This is a Prime Minister who is simply not up to the job. He wasn't up to the job of being Treasurer, with all due respect, Mr Speaker, and he's certainly not up to the job of being Prime Minister of Australia. This is a man who thinks it's appropriate to slam down the phone on the Treasurer of Tasmania and use language which was insulting and which I will not repeat in the House. I have too much respect to repeat it in the House. It was clearly insulting to the Treasurer and to all Tasmanians, because that is what he really thinks. He didn't fly into Braddon and say: 'I'm here to tell you you're all mendicants. I'm here to tell you don't deserve the GST money. I'm here to tell you don't deserving fair hospital funding or school funding. I'm here to tell you if you vote for me and for the Liberal Party you'll get a Treasurer and then a Prime Minister who thinks Tasmanians are beggars.' He didn't tell the people of Tasmania that.</p><p>He's not being honest with the people of Australia either. This is a man who is prepared to be dishonest with the people of Tasmania. He's therefore willing to be dishonest with the people of Australia. He's not very authentic. He knows that if he can fake authenticity, he's got it made. He knows that. That's his big plan. He says he has a mountain to climb to show the Australian people he's authentic. He's right there; we've found a point of agreement. He has a mountain to climb to show the Australian people he is authentic, because he is not authentic. He is authentic about one thing only: his ambitions. Remember when he gave Malcolm the cuddle and said, 'This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him.' Well, he was ambitious for somebody; that's true. He's not ambitious for the people of Tasmania, that's for certain. He thinks the people of Tasmania deserve less. He thought Malcolm Turnbull should deserve less as well, and he dealt with that.</p><p>Let's not let him deal with the people of Tasmania. Let's not let him deal with the matter of GST distribution. Let's not let him deal with low wages growth in Australia, where his plan is to cut penalty rates. Let's not let him deal with underfunding of schools, where his plan is to cut school funding more. Let's not let him deal with underfunding of hospitals and hospital cuts. Let's not let him deal with the challenges facing Australians doing it tough, trying to make ends meet, who commit no crime other than working on weekends, only to get a wages cut; or Australians who want their schools and hospitals properly funded. He has no plan for them. He probably thinks they're beggars and mendicants as well. He thinks they're an irritant as he tries to climb the mountain to build his authenticity, as he tries to show the Australian people he is really just an ordinary bloke. Well, he is an ordinary bloke with bad plans for Australia. He is a very ordinary Prime Minister—I'll give him that. He is a very, very ordinary Prime Minister. This bloke is the most ordinary Prime Minister since Billy McMahon. I suspect the Australian people will work that out, and they will work out his lack of authenticity as well. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Tony Smith</p><p>Is the motion seconded?</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
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