Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am not surprised about that because, yes, he is out of touch. I have a vivid memory from shortly after we were elected to government, early in 2008. He had been in hibernation for some time, although he was on the front bench. His most significant early remark as an opposition frontbencher was to complain that because he no longer had a ministerial salary and was only on an MP’s salary he could not afford to live. That demonstrates just how out of touch he is. He is completely out of touch. That was demonstrated by the complete absence of any discussion about what life is like around the kitchen table, what are the policy issues that impact on the cost of living—nothing, because he does not have a clue about what life is like around the kitchen table for an average Australian family. He would not have a clue about what it was like out in Penrith or down in Tasmania or up in Dobell or over in Petrie. He simply would not have a clue, living as he does, and has done for all of his life, in the leafy North Shore of Sydney. It is pretty good if you can get it. It is a great place to be and to go to, but most Australians do not live like that, do not earn the those salaries and do not live in those suburbs. They live right across the country, on modest incomes, trying to get by.

The hide of him to come in here and talk as if the Liberal Party care about jobs! It would make a cat laugh! People on this side of the House remember vividly what happened in this House back in February 2008 when we were trying to get the second stimulus package through this parliament. It was rejected and fought against tooth and nail by every one of the Liberal and National Party members who sit opposite. This is the package that saved Australia. It was rejected in the Senate on the first run through, then it went back up and finally it went through. But I vividly remember the night we were here debating it. It was about four or five o’clock in the morning and they were still fighting it. They were saying things like, ‘It won’t create a single job.’

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