Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

And of course their refusal to put jobs first just goes on and on. We have seen it with the approach to the minerals resource rent tax, where they are determined to take money away from small businesses and other businesses and away from supporting superannuation and give it back to some of the most profitable mining companies on earth. There is the irresponsible approach they are taking to carbon, where they are peddling snake oil and a plan that would cost working families $1,300. There is the irresponsible approach they are taking to the National Broadband Network, with their plan to rip the National Broadband Network out of the ground and deny Australians the technology of the future. And the list goes on and on and on.

Here is the opposition looking for every distraction. Although the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday, 'Make my day,' and that he wanted to have a debate about the economy, he knows that if in this chamber we are debating the economy then he will lose, because his economic plan is one of cutbacks for working families, of no support for jobs, of giving benefits to the biggest miners in this country at the expense of other businesses, of the most costly carbon plan and of standing still as we need to build the economy of the future. These are fundamental choices about who you stand with and who you stand for, and of course the Leader of the Opposition never wants to debate them.

We are very clear about who we stand with and who we stand for. We stand for running the economy in the interests of working people and supporting them and their families today, and the opposition frontbench will never stand for those things. They will only ever stand for the privileged interests of a few.

On the question of the matters of Australia Day, I have answered the questions put to me. I would refer the opposition to my transcript. Their muckraking and recklessness and their petty politics do them no good. Get involved in the big debate around this nation—get involved in the debate about jobs, about budget management, about preparing for the future—and if you are not capable of doing that then just come clean and say to the Australian people, 'We don't care about these things,' because that is what your conduct today is reeking of. You care about your petty politics; the national interest just passes you by.

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