STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (13:56): The Prime Minister is incompetent, and Australians now know that his word is not his bond. He told Australians over 90 times that they would get $275 off their power bill. They didn't.

He told Australians 50 times he would rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. For the record, to the question of negative gearing and CGT changes, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, 'Yes. How hard is it—for the 50th time,' that he wouldn't make changes.

Then, he fell off a stage and then told Australians it didn't happen. We all saw the video. As for the crude 'melons' gesture demeaning Japan's first female prime minister—'just an innocent hand gesture' he said, while the rest of us said 'gross'.

Now, we have the latest example: the Marrickville Golf Club scandal. Australians might ask why the Marrickville Golf Club was the only golf club selected for Labor's invitation-only funding program, receiving more than $6 million in Commonwealth funding. Perhaps it's because the club is in the Prime Minister's electorate and is one with which he has a decades-long relationship—a club that hosts Labor Party functions and is only 200 metres away from a multimillion dollar property owned by the Prime Minister.

Maybe it's because the Prime Minister holds an undeclared honorary membership at the club, something that—you guessed it!—he now claims he knew nothing about, despite using the club for decades. The Prime Minister wants Australians to believe he should be held to a completely different standard than everyone else. Australians deserve better than a prime minister who refuses to admit when he got it wrong.

I tell the Prime Minister to show a bit of character, but this is the pattern of Prime Minister Albanese. When someone else is under scrutiny, he demands the highest possible standards, and, when the question lands on him, there's always an excuse.