Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

That is an excuse to keep the shell there. That is his excuse, so those opposite feel that frustration. The only problem is that the Leader of the Opposition has his character flaw: the same people whose minds he wants to change so that they can help him form government are the people he is too busy abusing and denigrating day after day after day. And it is not just here in Canberra. They actually get on planes and fly up to electorates in order to abuse the Independent members of this parliament whom they want. They want them to change their mind and swap over and make Tony Abbott Prime Minister.

This is the year in which Tony Abbott enjoys his period as Leader of the Opposition. The only question is: will he make it to the winter recess? That is the question. I am very confident that he will not make it to December, to Christmas. One of his frontbenchers thinks parliament is sitting on Christmas Eve this year, you will recall—the member for Mackellar. She will be here in parliament but the Leader of the Opposition will not be.

The coalition has a dreadful record when it comes to delivering on national broadband. What you have from this government is vision when it comes to delivering on the National Broadband Network, like we have vision when it comes to delivering infrastructure across the board. This is a government that has doubled the federal roads budget. We have announced 87 of 120 major projects underway or complete, many of them running ahead of schedule. There is the Northern Expressway and Port Wakefield Road upgrade in South Australia, the Mandurah Entrance Road in West Australia—open two months early, in October 2010—the Kempsey Bypass which is on track to be delivered one year early. Those opposite did nothing about it. We provided the funds for it. We are busy building the longest bridge ever built in the history of New South Wales as part of that Kempsey Bypass.

We have delivered an investment in rail by more than tenfold. In our first term we have rebuilt more than one-third of the interstate rail network.

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