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

Mr Deputy Speaker, the member for Lalor thanks you for getting the pronunciation of her electorate correct today!

We have heard a lot about consistency from our Prime Minister in the last few days. I am starting to think about consistency and I have found some threads of consistency. It is consistent that those opposite look after the big end of town. It is consistent that those opposite do things that hurt low- and middle-income families. There is definitely some consistency there. This goes to trust. Can the Australian public trust that they will be consistent on the other side? Oh yes, they can. They have seen it in education, where the wealthy schools are going to get more money and the poorer state and Catholic schools are going to get less money. They are seeing it with tax cuts for the wealthy, the top end of town, millionaires—$16,000 extra in their pocket—while the lowest paid, the most insecure in our workforce, those who work for penalty rates, 700,000 of them—13,000 in my electorate—from next week will look at a $77 a week pay cut. There is consistency in this chamber all right. It goes together with the unfairness that is coming from this government. This government is consistently unfair. That is what we know. The Australian public cannot trust the government to be fair, no matter how many times they use the word. They are consistent all right—consistently unfair.