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

I have been wondering just how many times those opposite have tried to press the reset button since coming to power. The iterations are extraordinary. They came to government with a budget emergency mantra. I remember that one well. Then we had their 2014 cruel, unfair budget, with lots of lifters and leaners. That was the rhetoric of the day.

Who could forget when good government was going to start? It was going to start. We are still waiting for this good government. That was nearly the biggest reset but then the government pressed the button. They went through a new Prime Minister and a new Treasurer. We got the new mantra—'the taxed and the taxed not'. We needed to get rich parents. If you were a rich parent, you needed to shell out. Then they pressed the reset button again and it became 'blame Labor'. 'Blame Bill' became the mantra.

The federal government was going to walk away from state education, then housing affordability was going to be the big thing and then jobs and growth was going to be the big thing. What we are left with today is a disappointing Prime Minister and a disappointing budget, a disappointing coalition 2.0 and a very disappointing government.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the federal budget, a budget that I believe has the power to heal some of the old wounds and reset our country going forward. This budget has finally delivered the school funding model that Western Australians have been crying out for. I note that the Labor Party, during all of their 27 special deals, did not deliver any special deals for the most disadvantaged students in Australia—namely, regional and remote students in Western Australia.

It is so typical of the member for Sydney and her colleagues to rob Western Australia blind and then start kicking and screaming when we call them out. They cut special deals in their electorates over there on the east coast and they hung the west out to dry. But cleaning up Labor's mess and getting on with the job is what this government does best. Western Australia, please watch your Western Australian Labor colleagues very closely to ensure that they back our education reforms. If they do not, it will be shameful, and be it on their head.

The incompetence of those opposite when in government should be avoided. They get the rolled gold medal for defending workers' rights by attacking the proposed removal of the deficit levy. But they conveniently ignore the fact that they did not bother to properly fund the NDIS, a funding gap the deficit levy would not even put a dent in. Thankfully, the adults are back in charge.