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

Nothing could better illustrate the difference between the government's approach and the opposition's approach. There they are mired in filth without any policies for the nation's future, the very few things that they stand for being things that would hurt our nation. Their promise in clean energy is to trash the legacy of the Howard government and to knock our economy into a standstill as they desperately tried to scrabble around to end carbon pricing. There are the cuts to the bone that they stand for: hurting families, ripping benefits away, basic benefits like the School Kids Bonus, a promise to make sure that our economy is no longer in a position to offer jobs and growth. There is the Leader of the Opposition with his plan for increased tax: putting up taxes on companies, which would flow through to the things that Australians buy, and may well cost jobs in those companies. These are the only plans that they stand for before the Australian people—economic vandalism, cuts to the bone, hitting jobs and growth, more taxation on companies—and because they know that they are ill-equipped to debate any of the real issues for our nation's future, they come in here with rubbish like this.

It says everything about the Leader of the Opposition that he would authorise a question like this. It says everything about the Leader of the Opposition that he knows he cannot sustain a debate on the economy. He cannot sustain a debate on carbon pricing. He cannot sustain a debate on the future of school funding. He cannot sustain a debate on the National Broadband Network. He cannot sustain a debate on the economic opportunities of the age in which we live. He cannot sustain a debate on foreign policy and engagement in our region. He cannot even sustain a debate on border security; having thumped his chest so many times about stopping the boats, he knows he has actually got no way to stop the boats. Because he has no policies, because he has no plans and because he is mired in negativity, what he authorises is filth.

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