Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine my surprise this afternoon to have Senator Canavan come into this place quoting the Australian Workers Union. I know I speak for myself, Senator Chisholm and other members of this chamber when I say this: welcome aboard, Senator Canavan! You are in great company. It is wonderful to have you on board quoting the Australian Workers Union. I look forward to his ongoing advocacy in this place on behalf of the entire workers union movement. Perhaps we might see him step up to the plate and back in working families. When the penalty rates legislation comes into this place, I expect to see Senator Canavan coming over here, joining his comrades, voting with us on the penalty rates legislation. I will eagerly wait to see my comrade Senator Canavan join us on this side when that legislation comes through here.

Let me also touch on the smelters issue raised today. The government is, of course, committed to a sustainable long-term future for our industry, while those opposite have left a graveyard of discarded energy policies in this place, with backbenchers too focused on their own politicking and their own appearances on 'Sky after dark' to hold a consistent position. I will touch on that because we saw some pretty interesting scenes in here yesterday. We saw opposition members almost bowl themselves over running out of this place to get out of this chamber and avoid taking a public position on a net zero target motion. The only person who had a bit of ticker was my comrade Senator Canavan across the chamber, a man who has not met an anti-net-zero motion that he doesn't like. There he was across the chamber, casting a lonely shadow, sitting next to his comrades from One Nation. There were people in this chamber, but they rushed out of here away from a vote. Poof! Vamoose! They were gone.

We saw it again this morning. They ran out of this place to avoid a vote. Their colleague Senator Henderson placed an amendment here today and, all of a sudden, when it came time to vote, they disappeared again. They disappeared again. I know I am new around here—it's my second week on the job—but I thought the point of showing up in this chamber was to vote and do our job, not to avoid a vote and run away from voting. Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, or maybe I need to learn a thing or two, but those were quite interesting scenes today, seeing them run away from a vote. They couldn't avoid it if they tried.

We also had our friends from the opposition talking about Medicare. The gall of these guys to come into this place and talk about Medicare—the same people who left it in such a state after 10 years of neglect; they ran it into the ground—and about bulk-billing rates! It had never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than under the coalition government, and they want to come in here and lecture this government about Medicare. Bulk-billing rates were in freefall. You needed a parachute to catch them; that's how bad they were under the coalition. Unfortunately, they want to come in here and lecture us.

This government isn't about talk; we are about action. We promised 50 urgent care clinics and we delivered 87. We jumped over that target and then some. I've been proud as a new senator for Queensland to get out and visit some of our very well utilised urgent care clinics. I've been to see Dr Evan Jones in Morayfield in the seat of Longman, where thousands of patients were treated last year. It was a very busy urgent care clinic doing amazing things for that community. I've been up in the seat of Groom, visiting the Toowoomba urgent care clinic, which is also seeing thousands of patients. All you need is your Medicare card. You walk in the front door, and they take walk-ins seven days a week for long hours to treat people—young kids, elderly patients and working families.

It's amazing to see the absolute gall of those opposite. Under this government we have seen an $8.5 billion investment in Medicare, the largest single injection in its 40-year history. We've also seen a commitment to take bulk-billing rates so that nine out of 10 visits to the GP will be bulk-billed by 2030, an amazing commitment. The record investment from this government is reducing and reversing the cuts we saw under the Liberal Party. I cannot believe the gall of those opposite.