Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You used to represent these people—but no longer. There is not one shearer in the Labor Party. Not one! Tell me: where are the shearers? The shearers are here. The workers are in our party now, because we know what it is like for them.

I am getting a little old. In a few weeks I will turn 40, and my memory seems to be failing me. I was in small business in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012—the years when those opposite were in government. I do not recall the $20,000 instant write-off. I do not recall that. Do you recall that?

Government members: No!

I do not recall that. I do not recall the 1½ per cent tax cut. Maybe my memory is failing me. I do not recall being able to deduct irrigation infrastructure in one year. I do not recall it. I do not recall being able to deduct grain fodder and storage in three years. Maybe I need to sack my accountant! Maybe I need to get a better accountant. I do not recall that because it did not happen. You say you are the friend of business but you did not deliver for business.

But wait! My memory is coming back. I am having a moment. I recall a bill that I got for my transport had an itemised line for a carbon tax. I recall having to write out an additional $10,000 for a carbon tax. I was just a small businessman. My memory has come back. I also remember the water management policies under Penny Wong. I remember those policies because thousands of hardworking small businesspeople turned out to protest them, because you were robbing the confidence of those country people. That is what I recall. I also recall the hardworking truck drivers. You know the hardworking truck driver. If anyone has had to get into a truck and try to get wild cattle from the Northern Territory out of a truck they would know that these truck drivers are hardworking people. I remember them being out of a job because of what happened to our export market. You shut it down. Overnight, you banned live exports. It was a disgrace! So don't come in here and talk about the working conditions of Australians, because I was there as a small businessperson. I was a worker when you were in government, and my living standards did not go up. My working conditions did not go up; they went down. And the hardworking truck driver and the hardworking shearer were keen to vote you out.

I will give you a great piece of advice: over the winter break, go for a drive, go to the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine and reconnect with the party that you once were: the party of the burrs in the hand, the dirt under the fingernails—the real hard workers—and you will remember what it is to lift the living standards of Australians. I suggest that, if you do not go for that drive, you will spend many years in opposition, because you need to remember why you were voted out in the first place. You need to have some honest reflection.

Australians know the truth. Their memory is better than mine—thank goodness! That is because they remember paying the carbon tax and its impact on their jobs. They remember that they did not have job confidence. They remember that you shut down exports. The hardworking truck driver had his truck parked and did not have a job. That is what they remember, and it is still fresh in their memory. Unless you go on the drive to Barcaldine, unless you go out and sit under the Tree of Knowledge and pause for a little while and reflect on what the Labor Party used to be—the party of the worker instead of the party the welfare—you are going to spend many, many years staying on that side of the parliament. Have a great drive. Get out and visit regional Australia, and it will be the first step to your learning the lessons that you still have not learnt.

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