Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I sit here today listening to the debate on this matter of public importance, and earlier in question time, I am beginning to wonder whether I am in some sort of a parallel universe. Watching the opposition today is like watching a mob of graffiti artists jeering as someone cleans up their mess. The appropriate form of behaviour for the opposition at the moment would be to sit there quietly and hang their heads in shame.

They have some sort of a hide to come in here and say anything at all. The task that has been given to the government is to fix the economy. Today we are talking about the budget. The budget outlines how the coalition is going to reposition the Australian economy and get things back on track. What is a pity and a shame, and what makes me disappointed, is that we cannot go back and fix everything the Labor Party did in government. We cannot go back and change those overpriced school halls to some sort of meaningful education program. We cannot help the people who went broke because of Labor's ill-conceived home insulation program. We cannot get those contractors in my electorate who were contracted to the federal government the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are owed because of Labor's mismanaged schemes. It is just a shame we cannot go back and repair all the damage that has been done.

What is being debated this week is the economic damage that has been done. We are trying to turn this around. The chardonnay-sipping socialists that sit there on the opposition benches are so disconnected from the Australian people that they do not know what they are talking about. I can tell you what the people are saying in my electorate. I represent people with real dirt under their nails. I represent the real workers of this country and I tell you what: they want us to fix this mess. They want an opportunity for their children to have a job and to go to university; they know what it is like to live within their means. In this budget we have seen a refocus: a focus on things that will improve the productivity of this country.

In infrastructure, we will see the inland rail finally begun after years of discussion. The great irony of this is that the interest this country is paying at the moment could build two railway lines from Melbourne to Brisbane a year. Every six months we could build another railway line. By the time we pay their debt back, we could have a six-lane railway link from Melbourne to Brisbane just on the interest.

As we set about fixing the mess of the Labor Party, we are redressing their mess in other ways. We are re-establishing our relationship with our trading partners. As we speak, cattle are being shipped to Indonesia again, despite the fact that the northern cattle industry was pretty well destroyed. They are a resilient bunch and they are coming back thanks to the work of this government. We are organising the signing of a free trade agreement with our major trading partners South Korea and Japan. We are in negotiations with China. So, as we debate matters around the budget this week and the opposition has the hide to come in here and raise a matter of public importance of such a frivolous nature, it is important to remember how we got here—how we went from a country that had money in the bank to one with a hopeless debt. I tell you what: the Labor Party might not realise it, but the people in my electorate—the pensioners and the people who actually work for a living—understand that you have to live within your means. While they may not be happy with every decision that was made in this budget they understand the need for it.

I was listening to the debate today on the Green Army project and the members of the opposition are treating this as some sort of assault on the trade union movement. The most stabilising force you can bring to a family is a job. I can tell you that people in western New South Wales and regional Australia do not think the opportunity to have a job is some sort of an imposition. They realise that to bring stability to a family, when we are talking about generational unemployment, is a real turnaround. Those people understand that you need a government that has the guts to do what is right and not just what is popular.

It is an unusual day when we have the arsonist arguing with the fire brigade. But that is what we are seeing today. I would suggest that members of the opposition go home, have a good cup of humility, sit down and think about the error of their ways.

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