Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know I am a new member and that I have only been here a few months, but I am shocked. I am shocked at how quickly this government has backed away from its promises—how it has flip-flopped and backflipped since it took office. I remind the House that the Prime Minister promised, at his campaign launch, that there would be no surprises and no excuses from his government. Yet all we have seen is endless, pathetic excuses. We have also seen multiple backflips—backflips back and forth on funding. There have been so many backflips that they could almost be a gymnastics team. Perhaps we will need them to be our gymnastics team—who knows where the funding is for the Institute of Sport? Will they continue to fund it? Thank God we have a government that is able to do so many backflips so efficiently!

One of the areas very dear to my heart and very important to the people of Bendigo is education. Let us remind people what they said on education. First the Liberals said, 'Gonski is a conski'. That is right—they did not back Gonski. Then, once they realised that the people wanted it, that the state schools wanted it, that the Catholic schools wanted it and that the independent schools wanted it, they said they were on a unity ticket—that it did not matter whether you voted Labor, Liberal or National, you would get the funding. Now we have seen that they have backed away from that. They have backflipped once again—so many backflips!

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