Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

There are choices to be made between making changes that are better for us and putting off the hard decisions. These are the issues that we want to discuss in this parliament. There are choices between building the future economy and dealing with the $70 billion black hole that those opposite have in their budget costings. This week we saw the debate before this parliament on the PHI legislation, which was resisted by those opposite, who say they will restore it in office when they can. The Australian resources sector, as the Minister for Resources and Energy knows, is pretty innovative. But I tell you, the biggest hole in Australia is not at Olympic Dam; it is in the costings of those opposite.

We have choices to make and we want to discuss them. We have choices between helping families make ends meet and clawing back tax cuts. We have choices about whether you deliver tax bonuses to Gina Reinhart and to the other mates they have at the top end of town. They are the issues that we want to discuss. I know that the shadow Treasurer would rather discuss defending the interests of Clive Palmer, but that is not the position that we on this side of the House hold.

There are choices to be made between managing the economy for working people and letting it run for the benefit of a select few. There is a fundamental choice between enhancing opportunity and entrenching privilege. Those are the issues that we want to discuss. Those opposite just want to get down in the gutter and discuss personalities. They themselves said that they had asked 54 questions of the Prime Minister—their questions were essentially about issues that are of no concern to the Australian people or their future. Today their lack of discipline was on display. Not only were they interjecting from the front bench and the back bench; they were interjecting from the advisers box. When the appropriateness of having an adviser in the advisers box heckling across the chamber was raised with you, Mr Speaker, they interjected at the person raising the point of order. No wonder there is such concern on their front bench about some of the structures that have been put in place by the Leader of the Opposition.

The Prime Minister nailed the answer completely when they were so silly as to come in and suggest that the issue of contacting the leader's office over media was something unique to the Labor Party. That says it all. Fundamentally, we say day after day that those opposite believe that they were born with a right to rule. They think that the prime ministership was stolen from them after the last election, because of their incapacity to negotiate with people.

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