George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Dastyari, when the Prime Minister said on Tuesday he had an excellent ministry, I will tell you he what he was referring to: he was referring to the excellence of his ministry. Just look at the excellent ministers who sit in this chamber. There is my deputy, Senator Cormann, the best finance minister Australia has had in living memory, who has devoted himself heart and soul to trying to fix up the mess which we inherited from the worst finance minister in Australian history, Senator Wong, who sits across from me. There is Senator Mitch Fifield, the Minister for Communications and the Arts, who has delivered on the NBN so that it will be brought in at lower cost and years sooner than it ever would have been under the Labor Party's failed plan under former Senator Stephen Conroy.

And who can forget the peerless Senator Michaelia Cash, the champion of the volunteer firefighters in Victoria and the Joan of Arc of the owner-drivers, whom the Labor Party wanted to drive out of business? Senator Michaelia Cash, as recently as this week, has secured the passage of two vital pieces of industrial relations reform, the registered organisations bill and the ABCC bill, bills that will restore the rule of law to the construction industry and ensure that those who run trade unions—the bosses and thugs who pull your strings, Senator Sam Dastyari—are accountable to their members and that their conduct is transparent.

Then we have Senator Simon Birmingham, a finer education minister than whom it would be impossible to imagine. (Time expired)