Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Following on from the minister, we know that they hate being over there—they hate being on the opposition benches—and quite often we see them scowling and hear them sneering and grumbling. Their self-righteous indignation sees no boundaries. The Labor Party just cannot get used to the idea that they are back on the opposition benches, and the Australian people had better get ready for the longest dummy-spit in political history. Now they are trying to dictate terms to the government duly elected by the Australian people to clean up the mess left behind after the wrecking ball years of the Rudd-Gillard administration.

I say to the members of the opposition: block our reforms at your peril. Stand in the way of debt reduction at your own risk. Ultimately, it will be you as a political organisation that will have to look the Australian people in the eye and explain why they are labouring under the burden of millions of dollars a month in interest payments, why we have failing infrastructure, why government funded services are under catastrophic pressure.

The 2014-15 budget is about future-proofing the Australian economy. The Labor Party is all about the past. Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Gillard might have gone but their spirit still lives on within the parliamentary Labor Party. We have got Power Bill on the opposition benches. He is not interested in helping people and helping the nation in the long term. His focus is on trying to frighten people about key budget measures, about holding onto discredited Labor policies such as the carbon and mining taxes and also looking after vested interests like their dodgy union mates. His focus is getting back into government so he can spend more of the Australian people's money and can rack up more debt and more deficit and create more long-term pain for Australians and the national economy for his own short-term gain. As I said earlier, this budget is about future-proofing Australia and about honouring the commitments made before last year's election. In stark contrast, Treasurer Hockey's first budget deftly straddles the need for fiscal responsibility with delivering on its promises.

In terms of Solomon, the budget ticks the boxes towards building a stronger economy as well as establishing a safe and secure country for the people of Darwin and Palmerston. Last year while in opposition, shadow minister Keenan, now Minister Keenan, visited my electorate to announce that $300,000 would be spent as part of the coalition's safer street programs. For some time I had been lobbying the shadow ministers and the ministers for extra expenditure to tackle crime hotspots in my electorate, and I am delighted that as part of this year's budget we are going ahead with the community safety program and spending $300,000 on getting CCTV installed around Darwin and Palmerston.

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