Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, so listen to this, class of 2016. You're all ears! You can't do the things you want to do unless you've got the economy to pay for it. Do you know how you get the economy to pay for it? You encourage those who get up earlier in the morning and go to work. You encourage those who take a little bit of risk, and they've got to do a little bit better than others. We understand how to reward those who have a go.

I want to say that the people in my patch have benefited greatly from the free trade agreement. There's something we did: free trade agreements. Then, when you produce something, instead of getting $20 for it, you get $60 for it. That means more money. Do you know what that means? It means you might put on an apprentice. That apprentice might have a job, so you have a job. And that apprentice might save up and buy a ute. That means a car that's sold.

I want to tell you: this is how an economy runs. You start with maximising—Mr Shadow Treasurer, you're going to learn something. You start with maximising everything you produce. The next step though, of course, is that, when you create a free trade agreement, you get extra products. You've got to be able to get them to the market. You've got to be able to get your products to the market. Are you listening, class of 2016? So what you do is that you build a railway line. We've got table grapes; we've got stone fruit; we've got everything you could ever produce in the Mallee. How does it get to the market? On a railway line. Who's building the railway line?

A government member: We are!

We are! We're building a big railway line. But this railway, at $240 million, is a big railway line with five trains a week, all full of great products produced in the Mallee. This is the sort of thing.

You know that, when you build the economy, then you've got an opportunity to look after those who you want to invest in. Who do we want to invest in? We want to invest in our children. Who has developed and delivered school funding for our children? I think it was our side. I heard a lot of talk on that side, but who delivered it? It's our side. Do you know that every school, and there are 119 schools in the electorate of Mallee, gets more? Every one of them gets more.

What we're hearing here is that I'm starting to lay out some of the fundamentals of running an economy. But all we've got from the other side continues to be sledging, not an alternate government, people of Australia. What I want to see from the class of 2016 are ideas, people! You're fresh; you're new. But do I hear ideas? I don't hear ideas. All we've got here this afternoon is a whole combination of talking about how the government hasn't delivered and how the government hasn't done that. But what are you going to do? Nothing! There is not one new idea amongst the class of 2016. You've learnt how to play the game. You've learned how to get yourselves thrown out of question time. But, if you want to be the alternate government, you need to come up with some alternate ideas to take to the Australian people to deliver better outcomes for everyday Australians.

Honourable members interjecting—

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