Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

he is meant to be a statesman—outline Labor's approach and their vicious, personal attacks on the Prime Minister. There is one thing that is crystal clear about the modern Australian Labor Party and that is this: Labor would always rather attack the man than they would attack the policy. We have seen a complete policy vacuum from the Australian Labor Party for the past two weeks. For two weeks the government have been attempting to argue why Australia needs structural reform. For two weeks we have been open and upfront to the Australian people about why things need to change. For two weeks the coalition have been outlining why Labor's trajectory was unsustainable and ultimately would mean more pain and more hurt in the future unless small changes were made now. And you would think that the Labor Party, and in particular the man who is meant to be the alternative Prime Minister of the country, would show the slightest bit of statesmanship. You think he might address some of the policy issues that have been at the centre of the debate in this parliament over the past two weeks. But none of that, none of that at all from the Leader of the Opposition. What we had was nasty and tawdry and vicious attacks against the Prime Minister and other members of the coalition.

I say to the Labor Party: grow up; start to learn that the Australian people have rejected the negativity and the barefaced mistruths that we have heard and continue to hear from the Australian Labor Party. And if you would like examples, there is already a myriad of them that were just enunciated once again from the Australian Labor Party. We see the Australian Labor Party talk about how they want—and we just heard this from the Leader of the Opposition—a 'mature and sophisticated debate'. I cannot believe the hypocrisy. Well let us deal with some facts for a change, rather than the personal arguments that we have heard for 10 minutes from the Leader of the Opposition. Let us talk about what is going on in health. Let us talk about what is going on in education. And let us talk about what is going on with pensions. Because those are the three main elements where the Australian Labor Party likes to puff their chests out and say, 'Don't worry Australian people; we'll be the defenders of those three shibboleths when it comes to the Australian society'.

Unfortunately, the truth does not accord with the rhetoric from the Australian Labor Party. Labor's approach in relation to each of those three unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. Indeed, in the Leader of the Opposition's budget-in-reply speech a little over a week ago he said:

Gone, $50 billion from hospital funding to states.

He has repeated it on numerous occasions since then, and Labor members up hill and down dale like to say that the coalition is cutting funding to health. But it is simply not true. As the Prime Minister outlined today, what we see is that annual federal assistance to the states for public hospitals will increase by nine per cent every year for the next three years and by six per cent in the fourth year: representing a total increase of funding to the states for public hospitals of 40 per cent. But you do not hear those facts from the opposition. They would rather terrify people, they would rather run around spreading mistruths, attempting to manipulate the Australian public into thinking that this was the worst budget ever handed down.

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