Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the delay tactic. I think that cost me 15 seconds but 15 seconds in this place is cheap. I do not need the extra 15 seconds to make the points that I am making—whether it comes to export market development grants, whether it comes to supporting small business, whether it comes to how they treat ordinary people and workers in this country—low-income workers—whether it is superannuation. We moved superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent and that has been delayed. We all know what a delay is: it is stuck at 9.25 per cent. It is not going to budge.

Here is my challenge to the Liberal Party: move it from 9.25 per cent; move it and move it soon. Move it as soon as you can. But of course who pays? The National Party are the great agrisocialists of Australia. Their version of the world is simple: 'Take the money off this mob and just give it to us. We know what to do with the best—

A government member interjecting—

I am sure that is not the view within the Liberal Party or the government when it comes to the National Party. I love these interjections from these guys. Let me tell you what they have actually done, their record. I would stand on my record any day and I will stand on their record any day. Their record is very short. It would not take me much to get up on top of it. But it is about cutting support for low-income Australians; it is about cutting your schoolkids bonus—cost-of-living pressures. How do you relieve cost-of-living pressures for ordinary families? You help them with schoolkids bonus; you help them with a range of things; you help them with their schools; you actually try to improve their schools; you try to help them with their health costs; you try to help them with small business; you really actually do something about the bureaucracy. That is what Labor did. We are getting to see exactly what the Liberals are doing.

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