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

I thank Senator Brandis and congratulate him on being allowed to ask a question. Let us be clear. What is absolutely clear in the budget papers when it comes to unemployment, the question about which Senator Brandis is asking, is that 210,000 Australians would be unemployed if we had followed Senator Brandis’s and the Leader of the Opposition’s policy agenda—210,000 Australians.

To come in here and cry crocodile tears for those who are going to suffer, through no fault of their own but through the fault of the global economic recession, and pretend that you are even remotely interested in the plight of those Australian families borders on the incredulous. Those opposite would condemn a further 210,000 Australians and their families to unemployment because of the policies they are pursuing and because they are not interested in the slightest. Those opposite have no credibility. They seek to walk both sides of the street. They seek to feign sorrow for the 900,000-plus Australians who will become unemployed yet seek to increase the burden for a further 210,000, plus more to come, depending on how irresponsible they are in this chamber in the near future. Those opposite should take a good, long, hard look at themselves. (Time expired)