Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not believe that Australia should return to the recent past. In fact, our economic policy is focused on making up for the mistakes of the recent past, for 10 years of soft options, for 10 years of minimal economic reform, for 10 years of inadequate investment in infrastructure and skill, and with one big agenda at the end. The big agenda was to attack working people’s rights in the workplace. We are also about restoring the rights of working people in the workplace. We are going to proceed with our reform agenda and we suggest that the member for Higgins gets out of the road of the Liberal Party getting with the strength and understanding that the Australian people are moving on from the Howard era. They have a very different agenda and a very different set of economic needs which this government is delivering.

See this speech in context