Prime Minister Scott Morrison's reputation has been further questioned on Q+A, with some panellists backing claims this week from a Liberal senator that he is a "bully" and ridiculing his comments suggesting the best way to support renters is to help them buy a house.
Earlier this week, Mr Morrison rejected claims by outgoing Liberal senator Concetta Fierranti-Wells that he was "a bully who has no moral compass".
But on Q+A, independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie rounded on Mr Morrison for the second time in a week after earlier accusing him of being "intimidating" over the deal to resettle refugees in offshore detention on Nauru in New Zealand.
Audience member Stuart Loughton asked if Mr Morrison was fit to lead the country in the wake of the allegations from Senator Fierravanti-Wells, who Senator Lambie said was facing the end of her career for being a woman.
"The truth of the matter is that Connie Fierravanti-Wells got done over," Senator Lambie said.
"She's one of the best performers up there because she speaks her mind, because she stands up as a woman.
"For that, she is punished.
"That is why she has not had a ministry for so long and that is why she was not pre-selected. And that is the truth of the matter."
The comments come as a fresh blow to the Prime Minister and a Coalition, which has been accused of having issues when it comes to gender.
Asked about her own experiences with the PM, Senator Lambie backed Senator Fierravanti-Wells's statement about his character.
"I cannot take anything away from what Connie Fierravanti-Wells said, it was straight out of her mouth and straight to the point," Senator Lambie said.
She painted a bleak picture of the PM and her dealings with him over asylum seekers.
"It was either his way or the highway but I refused to move and I refused to budge".
Independent MP for Warringah Zali Steggall said while she had never personally had a complaint to make about Mr Morrison, she did have "grave concerns in relation to Scott Morrison's leadership".
Ms Steggall raised concerns about the culture the PM presided over in parliament, saying she was taken back by the behaviour that took place in the House of Representatives.
"Coming into parliament, I have been shocked by the conduct I've seen in the chamber, in the House of Representatives," Ms Steggall said.
"The slouching, the turning your back to people speaking to you. I think there's images of the Prime Minister making fun and turning his back to the debate … I think it is disrespectful.
"We know from last year, with the allegations, that parliament has a culture problem and change has to come from the top.
"… And I think it is an indictment on the Prime Minister that so many, including the Deputy Prime Minister [Barnaby Joyce], made comments as well about the Prime Minister's character."
Mr Joyce — who in March 2021 sent text messages, which were later leaked, that labelled the PM a "hypocrite and liar" — defended Mr Morrison when asked if he understood why voters might be concerned about the PM's character.
"No," Mr Joyce said.
"It's incredibly important that we understand it's an incredibly tough job and politics, by its very nature, by the moment you sign that you're going to stand for pre-selection, you understand what you're buying into.
"It is not for the weak hearted because you're running a country, you have the responsibility of 26 million people before you and it's a tough game."
But The Australian's editor-at-large Paul Kelly said this week had done nothing but damage Mr Morrison's reputation further.
"The government wanted to set the agenda around the budget … and on Tuesday night looked as though it was going to do that," Kelly said.
"Then we had yet another attack on the Prime Minister, this time from his own ranks … an extraordinary attack, I think particularly damaging, accusing the Prime Minister of being unfit for high office, of being a bully, of lacking a moral compass."
'Barnaby, I don't know what planet you're on'
Doing further damage to Mr Morrison throughout the week were claims he was out of touch with average Australians.
In a Wednesday morning appearance on Channel Nine's Today Show, Mr Morrison was asked why there was not more support in the budget for Australians who were renting, especially given the high cost of living and the nation's housing crisis.
Mr Morrison said: "The best way to support people renting a house is to help them buy a house."
High-school student Jasper Combs asked the panel how his generation could ever afford a house.
Senator Lambie said she had grave concerns for the future, especially in Tasmania where she said house prices in her local area of Burnie had gone up 30 per cent in the past two years, causing homelessness.
"Rent has gone through the roof," Senator Lambie said.
"For you people out there, I don't understand how, on a normal wage, you will be able to possibly pay rent and save money and put money in the bank. It's just not practical.
"You can't pay rent and save … not on minimum wages. It's unrealistic."
The comment rankled Mr Joyce, who trumpeted the government's announcement it would support single parents to buy a house with as little as a 2.5 per cent deposit, despite concerns interest rates could soon rise.
He then cited his experience with his first house.
"I disagree with that," Mr Joyce said.
"The first house I bought cost me $67,000."
Senator Lambie ridiculed Mr Joyce for that comment.
"Everybody, because Barnaby bought a cheap house a long time ago, you'll all be sweet!"
Mr Joyce said anyone wanting a first house should turn to a life in regional Australia.
"What I think I'm explaining is we have to acknowledge — and I know people don't — there would have been areas in regional Australia where housing is a lot, lot cheaper.
"We've got to make sure there are opportunities in the areas those houses are.
"If I go back to that same town now, you could still buy a house for about $200,000."
Asked for Labor's plan to combat the nation's housing crisis, Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it would not change negative gearing rules, and he spruiked his party's Housing Future Fund.
"We think that it's important that we begin with social and affordable housing, so we've got a policy to build 30,000 new homes," Mr Chalmers said.
"Our Housing Australia Future Fund is all about that, including making sure that people can live closer to whether they work."
'Short-term' budget attacked
With Australia's national debt rising, and the cost of living a focus of Tuesday's big-spending budget, audience member Talia Shevchenko asked Mr Joyce if the government was "expecting my generation to pay back this debt".
Mr Joyce trumpeted Australia's AAA rating before host David Speers pointed out that as a member of the opposition, Mr Joyce once said: "We're in hock to our eyeballs to people overseas, we're getting to a point where we can't repay it."
"Net debt was at $90 billion then. Now it's $700 billion for the coming financial year," Speers said.
Mr Joyce defended his statement and took aim at the previous Labor government's spending.
"I'm very aware of what I said at that point in time. The amount's not the issue, the trajectory's the issue and the trajectory was out of control," Mr Joyce said.
"Treasurer [Josh] Frydenberg had taken us back to a balanced budget."
Senator Lambie said this budget would do little to help Australians in the long term, and suggested it only helped to serve the Coalition's short-term goals as an election loomed.
Ms Lambie said she was concerned about the amount of debt young Australians would be saddled with, before rounding on big-ticket items like Australia's nuclear submarine deal and Defence Minister Peter Dutton's "Space Command".
"It won't just be you paying for it, it will be your children," Senator Lambie said.
"There is a lot of waste in this country.
"You've only got to look at those submarines … you might as well write them off because, by the time they're built, they're obsolete.
"Then we've got Buzz Lightyear (Peter Dutton) playing on an imaginary space station.
Mr Chalmers also said it was a short-term budget.
"Our responsibility is to make sure that we have a longer-term view about this country, its communities, its economy, that goes beyond the next election," he said.
"Our criticism of the budget is that it's only got a shelf life of six or seven weeks and, at the end of it, we've got all this debt.
"Jacqui's right that tens of billions of dollars have been wasted in the budget and would have been better off invested in a better future for the economy or to provide genuine cost-of-living relief for our people."
Mr Chalmers then went on to say that if Labor was elected, it would focus on the quality of spending, including in aged care, as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said he would in his official budget response speech.
Watch the full episode on iview or via the Q+A Facebook page.
