Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry; I misheard him.

Our policy that we have put into place is a budget measure. One thing that we plainly had a mandate to do was to get the budget back under control. We had a mandate to get the budget back under control. I said till I was blue in the face before the election that what we would be doing would be scrapping the carbon tax, stopping the boats, building the roads and getting the budget back under control, and I am pleased to say that that is exactly what we are doing. We have scrapped the carbon tax. We have more or less stopped the boats. The roads are building, to the great satisfaction of the motorists of Australia. And, step by difficult step, we are getting the budget back under control.

And at least the crossbenchers are prepared to talk to the government, unlike members opposite that have dealt themselves into irrelevance. On the most important economic questions facing our country, the Labor Party has dealt itself into irrelevance. So, I say to the Labor Party: join Team Australia. Get on board, and have the kind of conversation, have the kind of constructive engagement, with the government that is necessary in if you too are to be part of the solution and not just the originators of the problem.

Honourable members interjecting—

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