Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary contribution from the member for Moncrieff. We have heard it about four times already in this debate. Frankly, taking a lecture from those opposite, particularly from the member for Moncrieff, on political obstruction and opportunism is like taking a lecture from Ronnie Biggs on train safety. It really is. Their approach in the 43rd Parliament was to say no to everything. Even when it was consistent with their own policy, they said no to everything. They said no, whether it was about assisting the government to find savings through measures like putting an indexation on the private health insurance rebate—they talk about debt; well, they could have done some things when we were in government to assist in dealing with the issue of debt—or whether it was, as the member for Melbourne Ports has pointed out so many times, their belligerent approach when it came to the people transfer agreement with Malaysia. So taking a lecture from those opposite on the issue of obstructionism is really a little bit too much to take.

This bill, the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Amendment Bill 2013, is an extraordinary bill, which is why members on this side of the House cannot support it. It is extraordinary that the members on that side of the House would be speaking in favour of it, because, not three months ago, they were all standing in front of billboards and waving pamphlets around, saying, 'We will reduce the debt.'

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