E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 23 AUGUST 2018
 
SUBJECT/S: Liberals’ division and dysfunction

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: It’s more like an episode of Survivor than a functioning Government. Australia has to endure a night without a Prime Minister, without a functioning Government, and it’s all of the Liberal Party’s making.

JOURNALIST: Is there a preferred Prime Minister you’d like to see?

CHALMERS: No, we want some stability in this country. The Prime Minister we want to see is Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten is now the only one capable of providing the stability and the unity the country needs to get on with dealing with the big policy challenges we have and putting middle Australia front and centre again. At the moment, the problem we’ve got is while these idiots argue with each other, middle Australia’s not getting a look in.

JOURNALIST: Excluding Malcolm Turnbull, it looks like there’ll now be three contenders tomorrow. What do you make of the Liberal Party right now?

CHALMERS: The Liberal Party is a shambles. The Liberal Party is a smoking ruin. The Liberal Party is a dumpster fire of ambition and conflict and the only way the Australian people are going to get the unity they need and deserve, to get on with the big challenges we have as a country, is for the Liberal Party to call an election and for Bill Shorten to become the Prime Minister. Thank you.

ENDS