Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (15:17): This matter of public importance must start with this observation: Labor's criticism of the government's bungled raids is not about the integrity of the AFP; it's about the lack of integrity in this rotten government. Yesterday morning I said that these raids were the desperate action of a grubby government led by, quite frankly, a grubby Prime Minister—and I repeat that today. This isn't a throwaway line, but everything that has happened in the previous 36 hours, since I first made that statement, and everything that this government has done since yesterday morning confirms the truth that Australia has a grubby government and an increasingly grubby Prime Minister. During question time, this point was most clearly illustrated when the Prime Minister had a chance to defend Senator Cash. When the opposition moved a resolution condemning her, they did not defend her; they simply gagged the debate. Of course, the events this week—the unprecedented actions of this government—are occurring because this government is a desperate government running out of time. Senator Cash should try and salvage what remains of her reputation by resigning immediately. After all, if she seeks inspiration on the matter she should listen to the words that her leader, the member for Wentworth, said during the 'Utegate' scandal in 2009. He said that misleading the parliament: … is an offence that should result in the dismissal or resignation of a minister. It is perfectly clear. But, like so many other issues under this current Prime Minister, we've seen a pattern of behaviour emerge again. What this Prime Minister and this government do is focus all their energy on their opponents and none on the people of Australia. What this government and this Prime Minister do, whenever confronted by a choice to take the high road for national interest and put people first, is always look for the low road of their self-interest and to attack their opponents. We see the classic Turnbullian power play: wild, wild accusations, extreme language, big promises. You can just see him when he was a barrister with the clients the night before the case: 'We've got this in the bag. I'm the best that money can buy, and we've got this in the bag.' But the next morning, as we saw yesterday morning, we see that the case has changed. The facts are actually not as good—poor old client. 'Oh, my learned leader, the barrister, says—oh, the facts are changing. I'll be back to you in a moment.' You could just see the disappointed ranks of the government: 'But, dear leader, you said that we would win this. We've got Shorten where we want him. We have Labor where we want them. We have the unions where we want them.' And what happened? Classic overreach. Deep down, every member of the government knows that their Prime Minister lacks judgement. What should the government have been doing this week? They should have been prioritising first home buyers, but instead they defend the negative-gearing tax interests. They are a government who, when they have the chance to pull the trigger on gas exports, instead spend their time defending their beleaguered Deputy Prime Minister. They are a government who, when they talk about workplace relations, always talk about unions and union representatives. They say they like the workers, but they've never seen a worker whose penalty rate they don't want to cut arbitrarily. I've got no doubt that they pop into 7-Eleven when the coffee maker at home is broken, and they get served by workers, but does it ever cross their born-to-rule elitist minds that maybe the workers who are serving them in these fast-food operations are not getting paid properly; they're the victims of wage theft? They love to talk about employment, but they never talk about casualised employment. They never talk about the people who are underemployed. Mr Falinski interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Mackellar is warned. Mr SHORTEN: You're better off keeping your mouth shut so we're still left to wonder if you're a fool, mate. Now, the test for the Prime Minister today is simple— The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw. Mr Shorten: All right. I withdraw. Misleading the parliament just once is an offence that demands a resignation. But old Senator Cash, not content to mislead the parliament, misled it five times—five times! If she won't resign, the Prime Minister must sack her. He must put the national interest and the integrity of the parliament ahead of his own political interest. But the problem is that this born-to-rule Prime Minister thinks that he is above the rules. This is the problem, the infection which infects the whole of the government. They think, these conservatives, that they're born to rule and that they're always right, no matter what the facts. The problem is: they are born to rule, but they're unfit to govern. We know, we understand, that this isn't the minister's first offence; it was just her worst performance. Credit to Senator Cameron, Senator Watt and Senator Kitching, who pushed through a shameful and deliberate conservative filibuster to uncover the truth. Imagine if we had an employment minister who actually focused on the 700,000 Australians who are unemployed and the 1.1 million Australians who are underemployed, someone who cared about the fact that she presides over the lowest wage growth since records were kept or the 700,000-plus workers who are having their penalty rates cut? Imagine if we heard speeches from the government about workplace safety or industrial diseases or labour hire exploitation? Instead, this minister appointed a law-breaker to head up the ABCC and is now asking Australians to pay another $400,000 to pay his legal bills. But it wasn't just Senator Cash who humiliated herself last night. They say that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. In its first public outing, the Registered Organisations Commission has shown its true colours: nakedly political, grossly incompetent, shamefully partisan and hopelessly compromised. It must be amazing to Australians when they hear that the government can whistle up 13 police to chase up documents 10 years old within a day, based on an unknown caller. Imagine how many Australians are frustrated to hear that. An honourable member interjecting— The SPEAKER: I remind the member that he's been warned. Mr SHORTEN: They might be worried about law and order, their personal safety. No-one other than the government can get 13 police to chase up documents 10 years old, when ordinary Australians can't get the attention and the safety they want. This is a government not focused on the priorities of the people. But, of course, we know that this is a government that doesn't care about the conditions of ordinary people. We're not going to let the government off the hook for the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, putting pressure on drivers to cut corners and take risks. We've already seen a seven per cent increase in the rate of fatal crashes involving articulated trucks. And the consequences of letting ideological obsessions control industrial relations policy are that workplaces are less safe, wages are flat and the rip-offs and the rorts against workers continue. Whilst this government spends every week obsessing about its political opponents, Australians suffer. In the last financial year, 55 million calls to Centrelink went unanswered—families looking for support, people with disability looking for help, and jobseekers trying to pick themselves up and get back into the employment market. This is a government that can't answer the phone to its citizens but can find their address to send the debt collectors to. And in The Courier-Mail today we see another cabinet leak, saying the Prime Minister's decided to turn his back on constitutional recognition for the First Australians. This is a government that never misses an opportunity not to represent and put the people first. I have to say—and I don't mind admitting this, even as Leader of the Opposition—that, when the member for Wentworth rolled the former Prime Minister, I thought my job would get harder but I actually thought politics would get better. I think the Australian people genuinely thought it was a chance to put some faith and hope back into politics. But the Prime Minister, by all his actions ever since that event two years ago, has systematically destroyed the faith and hope of people who thought he'd be better than what he's turned out to be. And we know that the Prime Minister has a particular style of destruction: when all else fails him, he chases his opponents. Ask Peter King, the former member for Wentworth. Ask Brendan Nelson. Ask Tony Abbott. Ask Kevin Rudd. Well, I just want to advise the government on this fact: Australians have worked this Prime Minister out; they know he doesn't believe in anything except his own survival. That's just not good enough for Australia. Every day between now and the next election, we will put people first: we will stand up for better quality jobs, housing affordability, better energy prices and a fair go all round.