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

No, there were not 200! There were not 100. We said no to less than 15 per cent of legislation that came through here. We supported 85 per cent of the legislation that went through the last parliament. So I say to the new members that come in here: please check your speaking notes. Don't trust everything that Labor put in front of you. That goes for some of our guys as well. But you can't make up your own facts when you're in here, and we will hold you to account. That is our job. We will hold you to account when you come in here, set emission targets and miss them. Our job is to stand up and tell the Australian parliament you missed them. We will hold you to account when you promise a $275 reduction on electricity bills and electricity bills go up 32 per cent as a result of mismanagement. Here is an interesting fact when it comes to electricity bills: three-quarters of the electricity generated in Australia goes to business, so, when you work out why your grocery bill is getting expensive, it's because your input costs for farmers like mine and manufacturers in my electorate have their electricity bills going through the roof. You're paying for it.

We will hold you to account when you say nothing about new taxes and then you put a little leaked e-mail out through Treasury to say, 'We're going to have to put up taxes.' We will hold you to account. We will hold you to account when you promise to build more houses—1.2 million houses—and you don't get within a bull's roar of building those homes. That's our job. We will hold you to account. We will hold you to account on every promise you made and every dollar you spent. The Australian people deserve better, and we will make sure that this Labor government delivers it or answers for it. They will come in here and they will say, 'Earn more and you will get more,' but, when they say that slogan, be aware that, under their watch, there were 30,000 business insolvencies last year. So it's not about working harder and earning more. Under their watch, people go broke.

I will continue to come in here and remind you when I see productivity rates, under your watch, being the lowest in 60 years. I will come in here and hold a mirror up to your failed policies. The only thing they've got going on with productivity is that no-one knows what it is, but it means efficiency, and these guys are far from efficient. Our job is to come in here every day and hold this government to account, and you can trust we will do it.

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