Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. But we're not going to take lectures from the opposition around a better tax system when they went to the last election talking about higher taxes.

Now, on a fairer housing market—you saw an absolutely disgraceful display, Deputy President, when Senator Walker was on her feet in this chamber asking a question, as a young Labor senator, and was, disgracefully, yelled down by those opposite. Young people sitting in this gallery were nodding about the housing benefit they will now have access to because of the policies that were announced in our budget on Tuesday night. It is disgraceful that this party who claims to be the tail that is being wagged by the dog over there, in Pauline Hanson's One Nation, is trying to lecture us about a more sustainable budget. It's ridiculous.

Tax cuts, housing and fuel were the focus because of the conflict in the Middle East. That is weighing heavily on our economy. You can't disagree with any of that. And you are tone deaf, absolutely tone deaf, to the compounding cost-of-living pressures that Australians are under. For months you've sat in this place and concentrated on yourselves and haven't even listened to the Australian people. That is why your base has cracked. That's why she increased her margin in Farrer in the by-election. That's because of what you've done—navel-gazing.