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

The Labor Party did indeed once stand for something—but no more. The only thing you can be assured of in this day and age is that the Australian Labor Party will adopt whatever position they need to adopt in order to try to secure themselves one extra vote. So we get members like the member for Lingiari, who professes to be concerned about the people of the Northern Territory and who in his contribution to the debate made claims that this measure is not in their interests but conveniently ignores the fact that, as a result of the six biggest budget deficits in Australia's history, the actions of the government that he was a member of mean that the Australian people of the Northern Territory are forecast to be in debt to the tune of $25,000 for every man, woman and child.

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