Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cormann for that question. There is a very simple solution: pass the bill. It is very simple. Pass the bill and there will be no need to validate anything. Pass the bill. Stop pretending that there is no economic crisis in this country. Stop playing short-term politics with Australian families’ lives. Just past the bill. This is one of the most disgracefully inept economic performances by an opposition in many years. It is one of the most disgraceful. There are a lot of claims on that title and you are winning hands down. You have been completely wrong at every stage of the response to the global economic crisis.

This bill needs to be passed to give this country the support, through a revenue base, to allow it to manage in the best possible way the crisis that is enveloping the world. This is the worst recession since the 1930s, yet those opposite continue to believe that it is really something that can be wished away if you just sit on your hands and wait and see. That is the position being adopted by those opposite—sit on your hands and wait and see. This country needs strong and decisive action, and that is why the Rudd government has taken it. That includes this bill which you have now rejected.

Those opposite should hang their heads in shame that they have been prepared to play short-term politics at the expense of the country’s national interest. They are weakening the position of the government to be able to cushion the global impact. That is why they deserve to be condemned.