Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

You fool! You voted against your own package. Let us restore some confidence. Let us get this place functioning like it is meant to be functioning. Small business cannot wait any more. That is the reality. It is Wednesday today. They cannot wait till Thursday, because that is what you tell them every day. Every day there is more uncertainty. Every day you have another go at small business, making their lives difficult. When they go to see their accountants, their accountants say, 'No, don't make these decisions today. There is too much uncertainty.' Tony Abbott loves nothing more than turning up to small coffee shops, somewhere locally, shaking his head and saying, 'It's a worry. We are not sure what's going to happen. We are so uncertain.' He's asked, 'But isn't Labor supporting these bills?' He says, 'We'll see when these bills are put to the parliament.'

Guess what? They were put to the parliament today. Labor voted for the bills in support of small business. The Liberal Party voted against them. We have just had it. It will be in the Hansard. It is on the record. Every single one of them voted against it. Most of them were scratching their heads and going, 'What are we voting on?' I saw some ministers running around, frantically, asking 'What's going on? What are we voting against? Surely we can't be voting.' They are the government. Governments do not vote against—governments vote for. It is their bill. You do not vote against your own bill, you vote for your own bill.

I will not get into the detail of consumer confidence, because we have talked about it in this place so much. The numbers are a disaster.

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