Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This is the plan. It is always someone else's fault, Deputy Speaker. It is always someone else's fault that we are not going to be doing handouts, or it is: 'We're standing in the way of Qantas. We want to provide more foreign investment.' But, when you look at GrainCorp, what happened there? What happened on GrainCorp? There they were wanting to get more investment to help their operations, and what happened there? The government denied it. Why? Not because it was not in the national interest; because it was not in the Nationals' interest. That is why they blocked it.

The problem with the other side is there is no consistency in the way that they are making their decisions. They are happy to turn their backs in terms of providing the type of help needed and working with business to make sure jobs stay here, to make sure that employment is not undermined, to not see a slowdown in economic activity and to ensure that people will be able to take a pay cheque home.

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