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

Senator Reynolds, 7,000 premises are being connected every single day.

Opposition senators interjecting—

Of course, when you roll out these facts, what do you get? A cacophony of interjections from those opposite. When you hit them with the facts, they are unable to deal with reality.

I simply say to those opposite and, more importantly, to the Australian people: don't look at what the Australian Labor Party promise; look at what they actually deliver. They promised us this grand National Disability Insurance Scheme. It was completely underfunded but they had to roll it out on the basis of cheap politics. They had a health policy without any funding attached to it. They also had an education policy without any funding attached to it. They will always speak using hyperbole, trying to get the Australian people to vote for them. You then ask: does the rhetoric match the delivery? You have to give the Australian Labor Party 100 per cent for their consistency. They constantly fail to deliver on that which they promise the Australian people.

The simple facts are: they failed by 83 per cent their 2013 rollout target. That is what Labor had when they were in government. There was a change of government and we have now sought to clean up the mess that we inherited. What a lemon we inherited from former Senator Conroy and the Australian Labor Party. Today we are seeking to clean up the mess of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, just as we are trying to clean up the mess Labor left us in relation to the budget and just as we are trying to clean up the mess they left us in the health and education portfolios. Having left us with all of these messes, the Australian Labor Party then come in here and pontificate to us and the Australian people on how we should be doing better. There is the phrase that actions speak so much louder than words. I simply say to the Australian people and those opposite: don't listen to Labor's words, don't listen to their hyperbole and rhetoric; have a look at what they actually deliver. (Time expired)