Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I congratulate you on your elevation to high office. It was a great privilege to work with you on the panel in the last government, and I know you to be very fair and equitable.

I want to congratulate the new Labor Party members on your elevation to this place. It's a great privilege to serve here. I remember a time, early, when I sat on the government side of the dispatches, and our numbers were very similar. But this is the first time I've sat on this side with such dwindled numbers. Congratulations on your formidable win. There is a great responsibility on each of you to make sure that you do the right thing by our country. And there's a great responsibility on our side to hold you accountable for your policies and hold a mirror up when you fail. The Australian public sent our side of government a very strong message. They want us to do better, and we will. Under our leader we will deliver clear and frank opposition, and we will come in here and prosecute the truth. But what we will not do is stand by and let those on the other side come to this Chamber and speak mistruths. Just today, in question time, we had the Prime Minister again berating that we were a coalition of no, no, no, no. And I thought: 'I was in that government, I don't remember saying no to everything.' If you listen to them, you'll hear we say no to everything.

A source that you can trust is the Parliamentary Library. I went to the Parliamentary Library and asked how many bills were presented in the Chamber last year. And they said there had been 375. I'd asked, just out of interest, because I'm informed by the Prime Minister regularly that we say no to everything.

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