Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Paterson is criticising the Minister for Home Affairs for giving a short answer, but I sat here in question time and watched members of the opposition beg for answers of perhaps seven or eight words in length. I just think there is no making the opposition happy sometimes with the length of answers. I am here to perhaps break his heart yet again by continuing with this valedictory talk.

Then we have the Minister for Sport and Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth. Isn’t she doing a great job? One of the best things she has done in the last 12 months is promote the issues of Paralympians. In fact, she and I both attended the announcement and launch of the Winter Paralympics team who will be going to represent Australia at Whistler. We have the largest squad we have ever sent going to Whistler.

The good news is that I can now move on to the parliamentary secretaries and acknowledge their contributions. Of course, it would be remiss of me not to start with the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services. The member for Reid has done a great job—even though Reid no longer exists, and we wish him well in his future adventures in preselection. Then we have the member for Corio, a new parliamentary secretary, who has been working very well with the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and working hard on a range of issues.

I would also like to acknowledge all the disabled people in Australia. We hope the announcement this week of a national disability insurance scheme to be studied by the Productivity Commission can bring them some sense of optimism this Christmas.

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