Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Deputy President, I will say to those over there, you've watched too much To the Manor Born. You think you are to the manor born. You want to keep wages low. You want to keep people down. Don't come in here and tell us that people won't be able to afford Christmas. We know that because we're cleaning up 10 years of your mess. Ten years of you guys deliberately keeping wages lower. Ten years of you denying low-paid workers an increase. Do you think people are fooled by that? I have early childhood educators in my office, or in my office in Hobart, probably at least twice a month. And I'll tell you, they do not like you guys. I'm quite happy for them not to like you guys. They know that you are blocking this wage rise for them. They know that it is you that are trying to hold Australia back.

I've got less than two minutes left and I do want to say something nice at the end. You are the guys that had colour coded spreadsheets. Where is the transparency in that? Don't come in here and talk complete rubbish. People outside this building know you're talking rubbish. They know that it's just a ploy to try and cover up because you're all in denial over there. I don't know how many times—I don't know why you don't put your hands up like this every time someone says, 'Wasn't our fault. We don't have to take responsibility because now you're the government.' Guess what? You spent 10 years buggering up the community, buggering up Australia.