Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Reps promoting me from parl. sec. to cabinet in 2009. But in terms of what goes on—

Opposition members interjecting—

But in terms of the issues, I appreciate a question from the opposition on health and safety, and I particularly appreciate it on asbestos from the Leader of the Opposition. The historians in this chamber and listening may be interested to know that until this week the Leader of the Opposition has never raised a question on asbestos in the parliament. But I can say that, when it comes to dealing with asbestos, we take the advice of our regulators. We are the ones who have created a national agency. We are the ones who have done a national plan.

This is in stark contrast to what happens when the coalition get power. We all know what happens then: it is reported today in Fairfax that the then minister for workplace relations, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, rejected a plan to speed up asbestos compensation. Strike 1, 2001!

Then we have a situation when there was a proposition about putting in a drug which would support asbestos victims in their suffering—

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