Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always remarkable that when the opposition want to come into this chamber, they ask questions about wage growth. This is an opposition that, whether it was under Abbott or Turnbull or, in fact, Morrison, did nothing to support working Australians. They did nothing to support an increase in the minimum wage. They had almost 10 years to do something for Australian workers and they failed at every single obstacle. Now, we have inherited a huge debt. We've also inherited a situation where this opposition, when they were in government, had no real plan for jobs. They had no plan at all when it came to reducing the cost of living, and all of a sudden, in the short period of time they've been in opposition, they want to come in here and lecture us about what we should be doing and what we haven't done in less than 12 weeks. I mean, realistically! I know you've learnt nothing at all from the election defeat and I know it will take you some time to get used to being in opposition, but we went to the election with a plan: a plan to grow jobs in this country and to increase wages for working Australians. We know and we understand the challenges that Australian families and Australians are facing when it comes to the cost of living. But, to do that, you need to lift productivity, you need to lift wages and you need to ensure that you have skills and opportunities. That's why we went to the election supporting TAFE: to ensure that we have the best, most highly-skilled workforce going forward. We've got a plan. That's the difference between us and those opposite.

Now, I know that it's difficult to face an election defeat, particularly when you've been in government for so long, but the reality is: the Australian people didn't buy your crap anymore.

They just didn't believe anything that you took to the election. No-one believed a word of what you've been saying for so long, because you have—