Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Part of our plan for restoring the Australian economy, enunciated in the document Our plan—real solutions for all Australians, was to repeal the carbon tax to ensure that jobs could grow and household budgets could be maintained. We had a policy to repeal the mining tax. How important is that, given the information that Senator Sinodinos just provided to the Senate in relation to the drop-off of mining investment? We had a policy to stop the boats to ensure that the haemorrhaging of the Australian budget stopped. Senator Cash has just given us a description of the reasons why such a policy was needed and so overwhelmingly embraced by the Australian people. We also have a policy to restore law and order to the building and construction sector and to registered organisations. We took those policies to the Australian people and the Australian people endorsed them. We also took a policy of getting the budget back under control, which requires some tough decisions, as enunciated by Senator Nash earlier in question time. We are a party and a government that have submitted ourselves to the Australian people. It happens every three years in this country, and the people of Australia decide who they want as their management team for the following three years. The Australian people spoke loud and clear—very loud and clear—as to who they wanted to run this country and we intend to implement our policies. (Time expired)