House debates

Thursday, 10 December 2020

Statements by Members

Coalition Government

1:36 pm

Photo of Josh WilsonJosh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I am looking forward for 2021. It has been a difficult year. I know many Australians have had a very rough time. People have lost their jobs, people have been managing chronic ill health or disability. There are families who have been separated and Australians stranded overseas. I look forward to next year because I hope and I believe it can be better than 2020.

Australia should emerge stronger and fairer from this pandemic, but it won't happen with this slack and self-satisfied government that is always punching down. It won't happen with a government that responds to a crisis by cutting wages, freezing pensions and breaking promises—a government obsessed with slogans and with no interest in solutions. When they say their approach is targeted and temporary we know exactly what they mean: it won't be fair and it won't last. They deliver taxpayer fattened bonuses for CEOs with more belt tightening for millions of Australians who are already doing it tough. Australia deserves better than that. We can do better than a PM who doesn't hold a hose but will make you shake his hand. We can do better than PM who won't take responsibility for the fact that aged-care workers don't have time to help residents get dressed but needs to ask his media team whether today's the day to put on the long pants. I'm looking forward to 2021 because we can, as a nation, set off on a better and fairer course, holding no-one back and, most importantly of all, leaving no-one behind. But that requires a change. It requires change. It requires an Albanese federal Labor government.

Comments

No comments