Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services, Housing, Youth and Women) Share this | Hansard source

He is very sensitive. He should not have said it if he did not mean it. It is very disappointing to hear the minister say that the reason families are struggling is because they want too much; because they want to put a roof over their heads; because they want to put a roof over their kids’ heads. Selfish parents—unbelievable. It is a lot like that Larson cartoon in which there is a dog owner talking to a dog. The line under the cartoon is, ‘What people say; what dogs hear.’ The person is saying: ‘Sit down! Bad dog! Stay there!’ What the dog hears is, ‘Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!’ The minister and the government are just not listening. They are not hearing what people are saying when they say that they are having a tough time with interest rate increases. The minister was also not hearing when the shadow finance minister was talking about the government and its lack of ideas. What we say is that the government has lost touch, is running short on new ideas, is not tackling the pressures that are pushing interest rates up and is failing to invest in productivity. What the minister obviously hears is, ‘The Prime Minister is too old.’ I do not know what kind of Freudian thing he has got going on there. When the shadow finance minister says that there is a lack of ideas and investment, what the minister hears is, ‘The Prime Minister’s too old.’

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