Matters of Urgency — Prime Minister

Slade Brockman

Senator Cash has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today, as shown at item 13 of today's Order of Business:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Prime Minister's repeated failure to take responsibility for his crude and inappropriate conduct, his willingness to rely on senior female ministers making excuses for his behaviour, his habit of denying, minimising or rewriting the truth when caught out, and the growing pattern of broken promises, false assurances and misleading statements that has destroyed Australians' trust in his word.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Michaelia Cash

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Prime Minister's repeated failure to take responsibility for his crude and inappropriate conduct, his willingness to rely on senior female ministers making excuses for his behaviour, his habit of denying, minimising or rewriting the truth when caught out, and the growing pattern of broken promises, false assurances and misleading statements that has destroyed Australians' trust in his word.

This motion goes to the heart of Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister of Australia—his character; his crude and inappropriate conduct but, worse than that, his refusal to take responsibility for it and, sadly, his willingness to rely on senior female ministers in his government to continue to make excuses for that crude and inappropriate behaviour; his habit of denying, minimising or rewriting the truth when caught out; and, sadly for the Australian people, the growing list of broken promises and false assurances that have destroyed any trust in his word. This is not just one incident; this is now a pattern of behaviour.

Despite what he said, the Prime Minister chose to bring the _B__ush Deep_ podcast into the Lodge. According to the host of the podcast, Nikki Osborne, this was personal. She says she contacted the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, directly through his Instagram after noticing that he followed her account. He responded. He accepted the invitation to appear on this podcast, and she says he knew the show and he knew exactly what he was agreeing to. So I say to the Prime Minister: spare Australians the pretence that this was some media ambush. This was no ambush. This was a booking made by the Prime Minister which he personally embraced.

What sort of program was it? You just needed to read Chris Kenny on the weekend; he documented it. Only weeks earlier, the same podcast the Prime Minister personally accepted an invitation to go on featured an adult content creator discussing in graphic sexual detail an encounter involving hundreds of men while the host re-enacted aspects of what was being described. That was publicly available. That was the program. So the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, either knew what he was walking into—and he thought it was appropriate for the Prime Minister of Australia to do such a podcast—or his office failed to do the most basic of due diligence. Take your pick because, quite frankly, neither says anything good about his judgement. Then, sadly, he joined in juvenile discussion involving accomplished Australian women and made crude remarks involving Japan's first female prime minister. They were choices. They were Anthony Albanese's choices. They were bad choices. And they were grubby choices.

When the backlash came as it did, did he take responsibility? Did he say: 'Mea culpa. I am sorry, I got it wrong, I apologise'? No, he did not. Instead, senior Labor women went out and defended him, even going to the extent of denying that those vile, crude and disgusting remarks were sexist or disrespectful. These are the same people who delight in lecturing everybody else about respect, but when Anthony Albanese is the man under scrutiny, suddenly those standards disappear. Labor's respect agenda apparently has one giant exception: Anthony Albanese.

This goes to the broader credibility problem that the Prime Minister now faces. As I said, it is now a pattern of behaviour. Before the election, what does he rule out over 50 times? Changes to negative gearing and changes to capital gains—to quote the Prime Minister, as he snapped at a reporter, 'For the 50th time'. That's 50 times, in his own words, and 50 assurances Labor would not change negative gearing or capital gains, and the Australian people voted on that. Then, of course, after the election, he merely said, 'Guess what? Despite those 50 assurances, I changed my mind.' Well, quite frankly, the problem he now has is: why would anyone now believe assurance No. 51?

Australians know the pattern: poor judgement, no responsibility, denial, minimisation, broken promises and somebody else left to clean up the mess afterwards. Anthony Albanese's problem is no longer simply that Australians disagree with him; it's that they have no reason— (Time expired)

Josh Dolega

It may come as no surprise that I rise to oppose Senator Cash's motion today and to address the claim that there was a growing pattern of broken promises or false assurances and misleading statements. It simply doesn't stack up, given the Albanese Labor government's record of delivery.

Australians judge governments not by slogans or personal attacks but by results. Since coming to office, the Albanese Labor government has delivered real outcomes that are improving the lives of Australians. From 1 July this year, this government has delivered another tax cut for each and every taxpayer. We've introduced and we've passed our new $1,000 instant tax deduction, introduced to deliver simpler taxes for 6.2 million workers. We've supported real wage rises for around three million workers. We've had the introduction of payday super, which will increase the retirement income of working Australians. We've expanded paid parental leave to a full six months, and super is paid on top. We've got stronger protections against supermarket price gouging. We've made permanent our Medicare urgent care clinics as part of Medicare. More medicines are on the PBS, and we've got record public hospital funding. These policies are now being delivered because Labor is committed to keeping our promises and to making life easier for hardworking Australians.

The economic results tell the same story. They demonstrate that Labor's commitments are not just promises made but promises delivered. Inflation is still lower than when Labor came to office and well below the peak. More than 1.3 million jobs have been created, and unemployment has remained historically low. Wages are growing faster than under the previous government, whose policy was deliberate wage suppression. In addition to this, new ABS data shows Australia's gender pay gap has fallen to 11.3 per cent, the lowest on record. When we came to government in 2022, it was 14.1 per cent. Since then, women working full time are earning an average of $325.50 more per week, and this hasn't happened by accident. It's the result of deliberate choices made by the Albanese Labor government and choices that we took to the last election—choices that we promised and delivered under the leadership of this prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

We've also been delivering pay rises for minimum-wage workers. We've increased wages in early childhood education and aged care. We've expanded paid parental leave. Super is now being paid on paid parental leave. Each Australian is going to be $2,800 better off when they do their tax return thanks to our tax cuts that we have delivered. In addition to this, workforce participation remains near record highs.

That commitment to delivery extends beyond the economy and into the everyday issues that matter most to Australian families. We've invested $182.6 million to reform the child support system to make sure that kids get the support that they are owed and that the system can't be weaponised to harm them. We've invested more than $4.4 billion through the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. We've introduced 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave. We've expanded paid parental leave to six months, increased support for single parents, delivered significant women's health reforms and invested billions of dollars in pay rises for aged-care and ECEC workers.

On housing, we've committed more than $43 billion through the Housing Australia Plan, including a 50 per cent increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance since May 2022, the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, support for first home buyers and substantial investments in homelessness and crisis accommodation services.

In health, Labor has delivered the largest investment in Medicare in decades. We've expanded bulk-billing incentives. We've opened up more Medicare urgent care clinics. We've listed new medicines on the PBS. We've reduced medicine costs. We've rolled out the first comprehensive national package focused on women's health, including menopause and endometriosis care.

Labor, under Anthony Albanese, our prime minister, has not only kept its commitments but also delivered real improvements to the lives of Australians. Whether it's tax relief, higher wages, stronger Medicare, more affordable housing and greater support for families, our record is clear, and this prime minister's record is absolutely clear. Australians can see the difference between the rhetoric and results because we are delivering for them. (Time expired)

Leah Blyth

This prime minister's record is absolutely clear. His record of spending years lecturing Australians about standards, about integrity and about respect. This is the prime minister that said this to the Australian people:

No matter who you support in politics, it is completely unacceptable to demean, objectify, belittle or offend women.

It sounds like the Prime Minister can't even keep his own storytelling abilities straight. This is a prime minister who went on a crude podcast. He participated in a joke about melons at the expense of the female prime minister of Japan. He then decided to try and tell the Australian people: 'You've misunderstood. Perhaps this isn't quite what people thought it was.' He then sent out the female leadership of his own team to try and defend what were revolting comments and gestures from a prime minister—certainly not becoming of a prime minister of a country like Australia. These loyal servants of the Prime Minister went out—these are women who supposedly care about the rights of women and are completely offended when it is anyone else who is doing the offending. But, no—'We're going to double down, and we're going to protect the Prime Minister and his absolutely disgusting actions.'

This goes to the character of a prime minister that has told the Australian people for four years that he would cut electricity by $275. That's a promise that he took to the 2022 election. I don't know about everyone else out there, but I'm still waiting for my $275 reduction. Instead, I think I've had about a 40 per cent increase. This is a prime minister who makes promises that he does not keep. He is gaslighting the Australian people every time he says: 'Oh, it's not what I meant. We've changed our mind.' This is the same prime minister who said more than 50 times that he would not touch negative gearing in Australia. Fifty times the Prime Minister said that, and then we got to see the budget that was handed down in May, and guess what? Well, he's had a change of heart. His word means nothing. This is a prime minister that is now coming after capital gains.

This is also a prime minister who keeps telling the Australian people, as do senators from across the way—they get the talking points, and I'm not sure how they regurgitate them because it is absolutely sickening to sit there and say that Australians have never had it so good in this country. They talk about the fact that wages are rising. The problem is inflation is rising higher and faster than what real wages are, which means Australians are actually working more and earning less. Yet this government, this prime minister, goes out with a straight face and says to the Australian people, 'You have never had it so good.' The Australian people have had enough. You can tell that the Australian people have had enough because this prime minister is now one of the most unpopular prime ministers. His polling is going into the toilet.

Australians watched the Prime Minister stumble off stage during the election campaign. The Prime Minister got up, after stumbling off the stage, and said, 'Oh, I didn't fall off the stage.' This is that prime minister who then says to the country, when he and Tony Burke were being heckled, that the reception was 'overwhelmingly positive' and there were just a few people who may not have agreed with him. This is a prime minister who says whatever he needs to say to the Australian people. You cannot believe a single word that this prime minister or this Labor government says. When the Prime Minister says to the Australian people that his word is his bond, the Australian people should rightly be very sceptical of that, because this prime minister has a track record for telling the Australian people one thing and then going and doing the exact opposite.

You cannot trust this prime minister. You cannot trust the government that he leads, because when this prime minister is caught out, there is always an explanation. There's always deflection. Like any good gaslighter in any kind of toxic relationship, he always puts it back to, 'Oh, you must have misunderstood.' This is a prime minister who is sending out senior ministers to clean up his mess, and Australians have rightly had enough. You cannot trust the Prime Minister. (Time expired)

Long debate text truncated.