Greens leader lashes government: ‘Hang your heads in shame’

GREENS leader Richard Di Natale has expressed the frustrations of Australia in a powerful and scathing speech in parliament.

GREENS leader Richard Di Natale has delivered a scathing speech in Parliament, labelling the leadership crisis a national embarrassment and calling on Liberals to “hang your heads in shame”.

Shouting across the floor in the Senate this afternoon, Mr Di Natale lashed the Government, which he said was “far more concerned about their own self interest than they are in governing the country”, and made a confronting list of all the issues that were being ignored while the Liberal Party “has been tearing themselves apart”.

“We’ve got 100 per cent of New South Wales that in drought right now. We’ve got a Great Barrier Reef that’s on the brink of collapse,” he said.

“We’ve got floods in India, we’ve got a 12-year-old girl who’s setting herself alight in Nauru, we’ve got kids who are in a catatonic state because they’ve given up hope locked away in those offshore hell holes.

“What’s the Liberal Party doing? Focusing on vengeance, on payback. Focusing on themselves.”

Leader of the Australian Greens Richard Di Natale went ballistic in parliament. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

Mr Di Natale pointed to Australians who couldn’t pay their medical bills, the homeless population, young people priced our of education and women who fear going home “because one woman a week is killed at the hands of a violent partner”.

“And what have we got? We’ve got this spectacle. This disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” he said.

Mr Di Natale also took aim at the Government’s policy paralysis, saying the Liberal Party walked away from climate change and energy policy, and ditched its economic plan to appease “dinosaurs inside your party room who held the Prime Minister to ransom”.

“You are so focused on yourselves that you have forgotten what the country has elected you to do, and that is to govern for them, not for you,” he said.

“You don’t deserve to govern. You deserve to be turfed out. That’s what you deserve.”

Mr Di Natale has earned praise for articulating the thoughts of frustrated Australians. A complete video of the speech has been viewed on Facebook more than 10,000 times and shorter clips are also being shared widely online.

You can watch Mr Di Natale’s full speech below.

Appearing on The Project, comedian Magda Szubanski shared a similar message.

“It’s reprehensible to down tools while you have a squabble amongst yourselves. I mean, who gets paid to do their job while they get into a bit of infighting? I mean, it’s outrageous,” Szubanski said.

“I think it’s disgraceful. but I think we shouldn’t give into cynicism. I think it’s a time to actually become engaged.

“Really they should just do the damn job and it shouldn’t be just about egos. I think Australian are sick of it, and I think we are actually very politically engaged. We really care.”

"We shouldn't give into cynicism, I think this is actually a time to really become engaged.” @MagdaSzubanski shares her thoughts on #libspill, talks attending her own funeral and reveals her special #Neighbours role! #MWF18 #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/aEu1TUihwP

— The Project (@theprojecttv) August 23, 2018