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

If one thing is clear it is that Labor not only will not change their mind, Labor will not change their approach. We just had 10 minutes from the Leader of the Opposition about Labor's approach. What we on this side of the House know and have known for some time is that Labor have not learnt a single lesson over the past six years. In that 10-minute diatribe from the Leader of the Opposition, the alternative Prime Minister of the nation had an opportunity to set the tone for this debate but, instead, he took the opportunity to do little more than engage in bile and invective. This is a Leader of the Opposition who could have taken the opportunity to highlight Labor's alternative for how Australia can live within its means. Instead, we had a Leader of the Opposition who did little more than pour scorn and personally abuse and attack the Prime Minister and the Treasurer of the nation. That in many respects speaks volumes about the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party's approach.

I think the Australian people will mark down the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition because they know that this was a poor attempt, a pathetic attempt, by the Labor Party to somehow try and become relevant once again in the debate. Labor's consistent approach is: 'We don't care how much it costs, we don't care how much we need to borrow, we don't care how much debt and deficit we are making sure this nation delves into, we will not change our policy.' We know that. That is not a news flash from the Leader of the Opposition. We know that Labor are being stubbornly consistent. Thank goodness there are saner heads that prevail in the upper house. We have seen today, for example, that people have listened to the will of the Australian people. We have seen today the crossbench work with the government to make sure that the national interest is protected. We have seen today and over previous days this week that the crossbench has been willing to make sure that the national interest goes ahead of their own political interest. But you cannot say that about the Leader of the Opposition and you cannot say that about the Australian Labor Party.

The Australian Labor Party is wedded to debt and deficit. With respect to the so-called unfair budget, we have seen some rank hypocrisy, and some of the clearest examples were just highlighted by none other than the Leader of the Opposition himself. Labor rails about how apparently this is an unfair budget that the coalition has put forward, completely disregarding the fact that it is only the coalition that has put forward a plan for this nation to live within its means. But, that notwithstanding, the Labor Party rails about how this is an unfair budget and claims that the coalition is only concerned about standing up for the big end of town.

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