Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was fairly unfortunate to have to sit through the member for McEwen's contribution, because the level of debate is such that all he can do is denigrate people. I want to make this comment because good leadership is not personal denigration. During question time he denigrated the Deputy Prime Minister, in relation to the colour of his skin, and it was absolutely appalling. I took him on. He made a comment about how he goes red in his face and that level of personal denigration is disgraceful.

During question time the Australian people also saw that two members, the member for Charlton and the member for Gellibrand, were sitting there with stuffed toys having a joke, like it was a kindergarten. We have to get a better calibre of debate from those opposite in this House. That was an absolutely pathetic attempt at humour.

Good leadership is addressing the nation's issues. It is telling the truth about the importance of fiscal management. It is initiating policies that grow the economy and that grow jobs. It is about looking to the future challenges and about investing in future jobs.

I want to reflect for a moment on the member for McEwen's contribution. He talked about our investment in mobile phone black spots. It is an absolute joke that in six years those opposite, the Labor Party, did not invest one cent in fixing mobile phone black spots. It is an absolute joke that you stood up there and did not have the honesty—the member for McEwen does not have the honesty—to say, 'We did not put any money into mobile phone black spots.'

We have invested $100 million to fix mobile black spots—almost 500 around the country and another $60 million. It is an absolute shame because my electorate Corangamite has also suffered a terrible bushfire in Wye River and Separation Creek. I have been campaigning for many months for those base stations to be rolled out, first, in areas of high bushfire risk, and you have the member for McEwen standing there when he knows that Labor never did a thing. Good leadership is about being honest. Good leadership is about delivering the NBN not just going through the pathetic denigration we heard from the previous member's contribution.

In September 2013, after six years of Labor government and $6.5 billion of investment, some two per cent of Australian premises could access the NBN. They are the facts. In my electorate more than 70,000 premises are either under construction or will be connected to the NBN by 2017.

We talk about tax reform. Good leadership is tackling multinational tax avoidance. We have passed legislation to combat the transfer of profits out of this country into other jurisdictions, which denies Australians jobs and costs Australians dearly. When this legislation came before the Senate, what did the Labor Party do? It voted against it. Fundamental reform, tackling multinational tax avoidance—and what does Labor do? It votes against it. The Greens showed more economic responsibility in joining with us to vote for this legislation than the Labor party, which makes Australian Labor look more and more irrelevant.

Good leadership is tackling excessive credit fees, for which we have just passed the legislation. It is doing the hard work on tax reform. What we saw in today's Geelong Advertiser was, 'Labor risks votes with housing plan.' They are the facts: heightened 'negative gearing hot spot'. In the Geelong region we have seen a number of areas on the hit list because of Labor's tax grab and its attack on negative gearing.

The member for Corio has, unfortunately, left the chamber, but as a proportion of investor owned homes compared with owner-occupied homes the hit list names Geelong at 80 per cent of residential properties owned by investors—Herne Hill at 80.2 per cent, Geelong West at 69.7 per cent, East Geelong at 65 per cent, New Town, Torquey and the list goes on and on. These are all areas with a high proportion of investors who own residential property and who will be wiped out by Labor's reckless economic policy. Good leadership is taking the hard decisions in leading the country, growing jobs and growing our economy.

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