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

No. Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President: I saw you get up, Senator Ketter, trying to name places. You did not even pronounce some of them properly, because—let us get down to the facts now—every Labor senator in Queensland is based in Brisbane or the Gold Coast. That is where they are. They have never seen a kangaroo. They have never dodged a kangaroo. They are nowhere to be seen in the bush. There is a reason for that: there are no votes for them up in the bush. I can tell you that now. What we have got is—

Senator McAllister interjecting—

No. These are the impacts. What you are trying to do is impact on businesses—in my case, out in provincial Queensland, in the bush. We saw you last week. I have got to tell you I found it incredible to sit over here and look at the Australian Labor Party sit over there and vote with their coalition partner, the Greens, to try and bring jobs in the black coal industry to an end. These are your workers. These are the people that you built the Australian Labor Party on—coalminers. There are 14,000 jobs already gone in Central Queensland, in the Bowen and Surat basins, and you sat over there to bring that to an end. There are thousands of businesses, Senator Ketter, that will not remember you for your kind words today as you talked about the impacts in those communities and tried to blame them on the government. They will remember you for your vote a week ago, when you voted to get rid of their remaining jobs in the black coal industry. That is what they will remember you for. And, just in case they nod off and forget, I will be there to remind them at every single opportunity. The Australian Labor Party as we currently know it is no longer the Labor Party of the sixties and the seventies or indeed before that, since their formation. You are no longer the party of the workers. To come in here and talk about the economy in the form that you have demonstrates to them that you are ignorant of economic issues. You made this problem. You created this problem that we have in the current environment.

My story is the NDIS. I think that all governments should be ashamed of themselves for not having introduced a national disability insurance scheme 40, 50 or 60 years ago. It should have been enshrined in the Constitution almost. And I give full credit to the Australian Labor Party for leading the way in relation to the introduction of that. That is something that you can be very proud of. But you know what? You forgot to leave any money in the piggy bank. You forgot to leave one cent in there to fund it in the forward estimates, and you have done that before. Keating did that. He took us to 19 per cent. Gough Whitlam spent like a drunken sailor. This is your history. This is your legacy on the question of the economy.

So, if I seem a bit testy, it is because for you to get up and start to lecture us on what low- and middle-income Australians have, because of some economic decision of this government, is a little bit rich. These people have been better off under coalition governments forever. They rely on us to come in and fix the debt. Well, we are having to struggle this time, because you did not just leave a debt. You left the piggy banks, and, when we lined them up and gave them a rattle, what did we hear, Senator Williams? We heard nothing, because they were empty. I got excited at first; I thought they might have been full of banknotes and so not make any noise. But no. We pulled the plug out, put the old looking glass up there under the belly of the pig, and it was fully empty—just like your ability to conduct and manage an economy. You are an empty vessel. I will not be lectured by you in this place. I will not be lectured by you about what we need to do to the economy. I will not have you tell us that low- and middle-income Australians are worse off under this government, after you left a massive, massive Bankcard debt that we cannot crawl over.

Senator McAllister interjecting—

No, it is good to see you come alive. I will bet you this: in every contribution that the Labor Party makes today, I bet they will not acknowledge the fact that they left a $300 billion debt, Senator Williams. I will bet you a carton of anything you drink, and there will be a carton for you too if you get up and tell the truth—through you, Madam Acting Deputy President—and let Australians know what they already know: what a terrible state you left the financial affairs of this country in. I will give you a carton of beer, or a carton of something else; you might be a soft drinker.

Senator Williams interjecting—

Sorry?