Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am not quite sure where to start after that contribution from the member for Shortland. I do not think we understood much of anything she was saying other than what we know about those opposite is that they will often say whatever they can no matter what the truth of the matter is. We have just seen a fine example of that from the member for Shortland.

But I want to start off my contribution by addressing a comment made by the member for Lingiari in this debate. This is an important debate about community services, but I have to say that what the member for Lingiari did in the comment that he made about the foreign minister was an absolute disgrace. He said to 'shut her big, fat trap'. That is the most disgusting, misogynistic, sexist comment that I have heard in this chamber for a very long time. It is a very serious matter. It is an appalling thing to say to any woman in this chamber, and I would call on the member for Lingiari to write a personal letter of apology for what he has said about our foreign minister. I look at the member for Jagajaga, and you would be equally disgusted. It is a terrible thing that was said about any woman in this House. I have to say it is a disgrace, and I call on the member for Lingiari to do the right thing for all women in this chamber and write a personal letter of apology.

There are so many ways in which we are contributing to the community. In my electorate alone millions and millions of dollars are flowing into my community in a whole range of different ways: disability, health, family violence and community legal services. We have not heard anything from those opposite about our Stronger Communities fund. This is an initiative of our government where we will be providing $150,000 in every electorate to support community organisations to build stronger communities. It is really unfortunate when there has been a fair degree of bipartisanship on this particular initiative that we have not even heard it mentioned.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most significant contributions to our community in a generation, and what have we heard from members opposite? Absolutely nothing. We are so proud to be hosting the National Disability Insurance Agency headquarters in Geelong. More than 3,300 people have already reaped the benefits in the Barwon trial. Let me remind members opposite that, when we came into government, we inherited an efficiency dividend—a cut—to NDIS support packages that the member for Jagajaga would know all about. It was a cut of $44.9 million, and we reversed it. That is one of the many ways in which we are reversing the damage caused by members opposite when they were in government. The NDIS is a once-in-a-generation transformation for people with a disability, and we are proudly leading the way in rolling out the NDIS right across Australia.

I want to refer briefly to the terrible scourge of ice. There is again a lot of bipartisanship in relation to this issue. Ten or so days ago I visited Foundation 61 and met with Rob Lytzki. He provides long-term rehabilitation and does an incredible job with this organisation. A hundred people are on his waiting list. People are dying on his waiting list. These ice summits have been made a joke of by members opposite, but they are reaping a lot of results as we feed that into the National Ice Taskforce. I have supported the call for more funding for long-term rehabilitation beds, and we see here that the state Minister for Mental Health, Martin Foley, has not. That is very unfortunate because, as we know, ice is not a nine-to-five problem. We need to keep the bipartisanship on these issues, and what we are seeing opposite is very unfortunate. Rather than play politics, let's join together to fight this dreaded scourge.

Across my community and across this great nation, we are contributing in so many ways to building stronger communities, and I am very proud of the contribution that our government is making.

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