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

It is a pleasure to join the debate because it provides an opportunity to remind Australians about the mess this government has inherited and to highlight our efforts to keep our world-class health care system in place and sustainable in the future. It is a pleasure to support the minister, who quite rightly acknowledged that the Australian people gave us a big job to do in September last year and we are determined to do it.

But listening to those opposite you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the last six years didn't happen—it was a mirage, an apparition, a hoax. But it did happen and the damage is real. I do not blame those opposite for being in denial about this. They do not want to acknowledge the mess they have left behind for the Australian people to clean up and the coalition government to clean up. That is all okay—I know it is hard to admit your mistakes. But those opposite are now acting like the tenants from hell. You have had them in the rental property. They have wrecked the rental property: they have broken windows, they have stained the carpet, they have pulled down the curtains—

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