Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister and I refer the Prime Minister to her admission in her last answer that the Labor government had lost its way. Will the Prime Minister now tell the House which decisions of the government were not signed off by the infamous gang of four, of which she was a central member?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the National Party for his question. What I say to him is what I said publicly this morning, which is that I accept my fair share of the responsibility for the decisions taken by the government—of course I do. I also accept the responsibility for forming the view that the government needed to do a series of things better and I am here, obviously, in this position as Prime Minister to ensure that we do just that. In doing that, we will be addressing questions like the future of the resource super profits tax, and that has already been canvassed in the parliament today. We will be addressing questions like investments in the great wind and solar power of this country. We will be addressing questions about how we can continue to improve our education services, how we can continue to deliver better health services and how we can ensure, having protected jobs during the global financial crisis and having done what we needed to do to protect jobs, that we continue to modernise our economy, including by providing to it the benefits of high-speed national broadband so that we can seize those economic opportunities of the future.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my point of order is on relevance. The Prime Minister was asked specifically which decisions she was not part of. While she is answering that, could she tell us—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Mackellar will resume her seat. The member for Mackellar will resume her seat! The member for Mackellar, not having resumed her seat, can now travel out of the chamber for one hour under 94A.

The member for Mackellar then left the chamber.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Is the member for Sturt running his own little afternoon TV show here? I simply say to him that, 2½ years down the track, this is really getting tiring. He started off so well today, but he might just sit there and listen to others rather than talk to himself.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do acknowledge that the member for Sturt is a performer in search of an audience but, whilst he continues that search, we in the government will continue to focus, as we have today, as we will tomorrow, as we will the day after, on the needs of working Australians. I would have to say that sometimes when I come into this parliament—and today seems to be one of those days—it seems to me that the Leader of the Opposition has forgotten that the purpose of this place is to serve the national interest and particularly to meet the needs of working families.