Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

What an outrageous slur we have just heard from the member for Ballarat. It is outrageous to come into this place and disparage, of all things, the Pollie Pedal ride. The Pollie Pedal ride has raised literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for extremely worthy causes in this nation. It has had bipartisan support in the past. Members of both sides have participated in the Pollie Pedal. I am staggered that the member for Ballarat would seek to disparage a charity ride like that in this place and then defy the chair—but I am not surprised, because this matter of public importance goes straight to the issue of trust. It goes straight to the heart of the difference between this government and the previous government.

I know it hurts those members opposite—they have suddenly gone very quiet, haven't they?—those government change deniers opposite. The Australian people made a decision in September last year, and that decision was that they simply do not trust the Labor Party anymore. They simply do not trust the Labor Party to deliver value for money with taxpayers' dollars. They did not trust the Labor Party to repeal the carbon tax, they did not trust the Labor Party to regain control of our borders and they did not trust the Labor Party to deliver responsible government after years of sleaze and scandal. They simply did not trust the Labor Party to govern the greatest nation in the world. In voting for their local Liberal and National Party candidates at last year's election, the people instinctively understood that they were leaving us with a huge job to do—and we are up to that job. They know we have a mess to clean up.

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