Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Fundamental injustice day! It was not 1 July 2001; it was 'the' fundamental injustice day—23 June last year. What I would say is that as that day approaches they all start counting. They focus on their own jobs instead of the jobs of the manufacturers, of the workers. They are focusing on their own promotion; they are focusing on sandbagging their own incompetence rather than focusing on sandbagging the jobs of everyday Australians.

We had the Prime Minister in this question time stand before us and say: 'Manufacturing has done it tough. They had the global financial crisis. They had lots of losses. They have got a strong Australian dollar. They have had real challenges with that.' But the solution is not to impose a new tax on them. That is not the solution. This government is so confused about its own economic direction that it believes that if an industry is doing it tough the best thing you can do for that industry is impose a new tax on it. What an illogical process—what an illogical thought process that comes out of a government that is confused and disturbed. There is a government here that has clearly lost its way. It is a government that does not understand its own policy. It is a government that goes so far as to announce a carbon tax without the Treasurer even being present for the announcement. Now, one of the chief salesmen, one of the chief spokesmen for the man who has to design the carbon tax, cannot answer a question in this place. Day after day he is confused and muddled. And that sends a message to the Australian people that this is a government that does not understand where it is going.

I say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker: this is a motion that needs to be dealt with because we are now bypassing the Prime Minister who is incompetent, the Treasurer who is incompetent. We want to hear from the member for Corio, the member for Corangamite, the member for Gellibrand, the member for Throsby and the member for Cunningham. We want to hear from the member for Brand, the member for Calwell, the member for Hunter, the member for Lingiari, the member for Wakefield and the member for Bass. We want to hear them speak up for their people. (Time expired)

See this speech in context