House debates

Thursday, 21 February 2019

Statements by Members

Government Procurement

1:58 pm

Photo of Stephen JonesStephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | | Hansard source

Who could forget the 2014 budget, when this mob on that side declared to all Australians that the age of entitlement is over? There were cuts to pensions, there was the dreaded GP tax, there were $100,000 university degrees, and the cost of medicines were going up and up and up. The Treasurer of Australia danced on a table as the people of Australia suffered.

Well, it turns out that the age of entitlement wasn't dead—it's just resting. Smoking Joe Hockey is back at it again. He's been directing DFAT staff to conduct meetings with the bosses at Helloworld so that they can get an inside run on a lucrative contract with that agency. And Senator Cormann, the Minister for Finance and the Public Service, who's been busy for the last five years cutting hospital and school funding, has been at it as well, helping himself to a free trip to Singapore with his family—a regular guy who didn't realise that $3,000 hadn't been taken out of his business account. We're all expected to believe there was no connection between these free flights and the multimillion-dollar contract that the Helloworld bosses have got. Well, the age of entitlement is back on, and these chums are in it up to their necks. (Time expired)