Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney and the member for Hindmarsh keep on criticising the government in very broad terms. But where is Labor’s plan? It is nowhere to be seen. They hide away from the fact that child-care places have doubled from 300,000 to 600,000 under this government. I was seriously underwhelmed and embarrassed by the limp performance of the member for Sydney. She seemed to have not much to say. She started reciting a story about lost childhood dreams and her disappointment about sea monkeys and then went into a slow and laborious explanation of the different forms of child care available in Australia today. It was quite embarrassing.

The problem the member for Sydney and the members opposite have is that they are genuine in their desire to ensure that these new child-care initiatives fail. They want the child-care initiatives to fail. They want the economy to fail. They want interest rates to go through the roof. They are sick and tired and miserable that things are going so well for Australians. Under this government, we have had a record increase in wages and 1.7 million jobs have been created. This government has done more for child care than the Labor Party has ever dreamed of. If, as the Labor Party claims, things are so bad, where is its plan? There is no plan; there is just whingeing and whining and a generally pathetic attempt at some sort of debate from the opposite side. The Australian people deserve more. The Australian people deserve an opposition that can deliver alternative policies and some sort of credibility.

But we all saw them on Tuesday night when the Treasurer delivered his budget. You could see the long faces. The Leader of the Opposition was so depressed that his face was almost on the floor. Members of the opposition were looking at each other not knowing what to do because this was a bumper budget. I have heard five budgets delivered in this place as the member for Indi, and this was the best I have seen. That is why the opposition have to concoct problems and nitpick. That is why they are criticising the child-care proposals in this budget. They will not stop because they have nothing else to do. But I suggest that they focus on providing some real alternatives and some real opposition, because that is what we need under our Westminster system.

You can imagine the scene this morning. The opposition’s tactics committee would have been huddled around desperately looking for an angle—an argument—to attack this bumper budget. But they could not find one and they came up with these pathetic, limp responses from the member for Sydney and the member for Hindmarsh. It is absolutely unbelievable. They sit there wearing badges of a different colour depending on which lobby group or union is holding them to ransom that particular sitting week, but they do not do the hard yakka and actually provide some real alternatives.

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