Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say at the outset that I am going to have to do something slightly controversial. It really does pain me to do it but I am going to have to do it, and that is to say congratulations to members of the coalition from Victoria. You won the last election in Victoria. I think it is important to remind them of that because so regularly these days they forget; they forget that they are out of opposition in Victoria. They forget that they actually have their hands on the purse strings now. They forget that they can take out the chequebook and make financial commitments to things that they profess so heartily to be committed to. I congratulate them most heartily on having that level of responsibility.

I might have expected coalition members to put up a motion like this when they were in opposition in the state of Victoria, when they did not have their hands on the state coffers, when they did not have responsibility for the policy direction of the state government. I could understand that. Have a crack at the federal and state governments. Have a crack at them with no responsibility for implementing your own agenda. But the circumstances have changed, as much as it seems to have passed by Victorian members of the coalition and their state counterparts. What I cannot understand is why coalition MPs from Victoria would choose to raise these concerns when their own Victorian coalition government has the means to commit funding to the kindergartens which they profess to be concerned about.

See this speech in context