Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If you want to go back and do that, if you want to be disappointed lefties like Senator Ryan, you go ahead and argue that at the next Australian election, because if you really look at what you want to do, it is confusing to many people in the street. Even noted economists are disturbed by where you are going, and so they should be, because it could take us back into difficulties.

This government has been one of the few governments in the last decade that has been prepared to put on the table the issues of nation building and, at the same time, fiscal responsibility. In each and every way, we have been opposed by a narrow-minded and biased coalition. It is time that they understood that their duties in this place are to the nation, not to their own party. I hope today we may see some semblance of light from some of the contributors coming after me.