Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the last few days in this parliament and in the national press. It is a given that everyone in this place, everyone who sits here every day, was involved in the election campaign in 2013. I have no doubt that those opposite, as well as we on this side, understand the promises that were made at that election. In fact, in my electorate, their promises have been put to music, almost. We all know what we heard. We heard, 'No cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to pensions.' What we did not hear in the 2013 election campaign was, 'That is the responsibility of the states.' We did not hear that at all in the 2013 election campaign. What we heard on schools was that those opposite were on a 'unity ticket' on Gonski. Well, lo and behold, again this week we are hearing that that is anything but the truth—that 'no cuts to education' was an untruth and that a unity ticket on Gonski was an untruth—because now we have again this government's agenda coming to the fore. They are playing footloose with state budgets. They are providing no certainty. We have this Federation paper that brings anything back on the table.