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

We have this hapless senator from New South Wales interjecting, suggesting we were listening to Victorian Labor. That would be the last thing anybody in Australia would want to do today—listen to what's coming out of the Victorian Labor Party—unless you are interested in 60 Minutes and all the disclosures there. But I would have thought that using the Victorian Labor Party as the gleaming star example of Labor Party success is indicative of how bereft the federal Labor Party is. They actually look to the Victorian Labor Party as some sort of guiding light! How desperate would you have to be to look to Mr Andrews and his state government for that? How many ministers have now resigned—I think it was three or four—and how many others are under a cloud?

I say to those opposite: if you want to be treated seriously by the Australian people, come forward with a positive policy agenda. It is no use just throwing rocks and hoping that the Australian people will be distracted from your own failure in relation to policy. Just look at defence. In six years not a single major project was started or thought about—let alone delivering jobs for our fellow Australians. Be it in defence, be it in welfare, be it in border protection, be it in trying to balance the budget—the list goes on and on and on of positive policy achievements for the betterment of the welfare of the people of Australia. That stands in stark contradistinction to what the Australian Labor Party has to offer—scandal, scams, bugging each other and reporting each other to the police. And, all the while, they fail to deliver a positive agenda for the Australian people. So, I am more than happy to support Mr Morrison and his government. (Time expired)