Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations) | Hansard source

Labor is sending our country in the wrong direction. Under Labor, Australia has experienced the largest collapse in living standards in the developed world. Think about that, the largest collapse of living standards in the developed world in the last four years happened under Labor. Real wages have gone backwards, interest rates have increased 15 times and the cost of everything has gone up from your energy to your insurance, your gas prices, your rent, your food, your education, your health care—every price has gone up.

The fact is, Australians are poorer today than they were four years ago. They are poorer now than they were when Labor was elected. And if Labor are going to ask Australians to hand over more of their hard earned money, the very least that Australians should expect is that every taxpayer dollar is protected from waste, from rorts and from corruption. Instead, this week, day after day, front page after front page, allegations continue to roll out about corruption, about organised crime, about intimidation on Victorian construction sites—projects that receive Commonwealth money. So that's your taxpayer dollars that are going straight into the hands of criminals and organised crime, allegations which the Allan state government in Victoria knew about and some of which the Commonwealth knew about too. Federal Labor knew that corruption existed but still gave more of your money to those projects where the corruption was occurring. Labor said that they would fix the rot in the CFMEU. Well, clearly they have not. This is going on today. This is money that they gave in this year's budget.

Stop looking after your union mates. Stop looking after your mates in Victoria who are happy to take photographs with criminals like John Setka, with criminals like Mick Gatto and do your job, Labor. Start looking after the taxpayers of Australia.