Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, before you leave the chamber: whoever wrote your speech forgot to mention the 335,000 new jobs. This is a government that just lives and breathes jobs and stimulus for the economy.

Senator Polley interjecting—

I know you do not like it, but you should sit and listen quietly while I educate you on this issue.

We have delivered three free trade agreements. Let us look at the current one. It is going to create tens of thousands of jobs in this nation, and you people had every opportunity to try to prevent it. I make a prediction: in the next couple of weeks, you will have to roll over. You are going to have to roll over because the pressure that is coming your way from within the Australian labour movement and within the business community will be just too great for you to bear. I will be looking with great interest to see what reason you use to cloak yourself as you back off. You will go backwards so quickly when the time comes, your shadow will remain in place!

We inherited an economy that was on its knees after six years of Labor chaos. We had to get rid of the carbon tax that you were never going to introduce! I am pleased that Senator Polley brought up the issue of promises. 'There will be no carbon tax under my government'—two people said that; one was Gillard and one was Abbott, and only one of them was telling the truth; the other one was not telling the truth. That carbon tax was bringing industries in our nation to their knees. And that was even before we get on to the impact it was having on the cost of living for ordinary Australians.

You see, your problem, on that side, when you want to talk about the economy, is that you do not understand what an economy is. You simply do not understand. You come from a trade union background where your whole life is devoted to trying to take something off somebody else. You are not wealth creators. I understand that. There are some things that Labor is strong at. The economy is not one of them.

Twenty-seven years ago I could still do push-ups and run six kilometres. That is how long ago it has been since you delivered a surplus!