Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. But I have made my point, and I would like to make another point. What we have seen today is an amazing example of coalition senators coming in here to embark on a bit of damage control. Over the weekend, Senators Coonan and Minchin both made clear statements to show that there was no flaw in Labor’s plans to use some of the Telstra holdings in the Future Fund for this proposal. In fact, Senator Minchin said that the Future Fund was well ahead of schedule and that future surpluses might not even be required to reach the target of meeting unfunded public sector superannuation liabilities by 2020. So today, what we have heard from Senator Coonan and others in this place is some kind of exercise in damage control, reverting to their original lines of late last week in this debate. But actually it does not work like that. What we have on the record is this very specific statement by Senator Coonan: ‘You might then consider what else you might do with it.’ She was referring, of course, to funds in the Future Fund.

This government cannot have it both ways. We now have enough public statements from them to know that there is no problem, even in their view, with what Labor is doing with the Future Fund. We also know that all of this ridiculous rhetoric and the histrionics from the Treasurer and the pathetic attempt at cranking it back up today by government senators will absolutely not convince anybody that there is a problem with Labor’s plan. We have guaranteed meeting those superannuation liabilities.

This issue is all about the fact that Labor has a vision for this country and the coalition government does not. It has been over 11 years since I was first elected to the Senate, and what we do know is that for 11 years this country has been waiting for a broadband network that will service our future social and economic needs. For the first time, the Australian Labor Party has had the fortitude to put such a vision forward.