Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Don't interrupt. I didn't interrupt you. We need to get people involved who understand the industry. When you've got companies in Wagga Wagga such as Ron Crouch Transport, and when you've got Don Watson Transport—which is a company that has moved refrigerated stock around our country for 70 years—going to the wall, there is something really wrong. There is something palpably wrong with what's happening, and it's happening on Labor's watch. We need to look at the construction industry. We need to look at the trucking sector. We need to really protect and help small businesses, and it's not happening at the moment. Our standards have dropped.

And what's Labor's answer? 'I just want to put more people on the green seats and more people on the red seats.' No, we don't need more parliamentarians. What we need is better policy. What we need is better parliamentarians. What we need is a government which is listening. What we need is a government which is caring. What we need is a government which is acting on the falling living standards of Australians right across this wide, brown land. It's not happening at the moment.

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