Some days when I'm in this place I feel like I'm an alchemist turning piles of ash into gold—or trying to. And what do those piles of ash represent, colleagues? They represent the torched policies of those opposite in just about every single portfolio. They refer to the laundry list of Liberal legacies that we inherited when we formed government and that was bequeathed to the Australian people.

Let's start with the collapse of bulk-billing, a topic close to my heart. The Medicare system was on life support. There was a housing crisis because they neglected to attend to supply, leaving it to the states and washing their hands. There was energy chaos and secrecy. There was a skills black hole where productivity went to die. In fact, we had the lowest productivity in a generation.