Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is going to sound a bit controversial. I slightly disagree with the member for Throsby, with all respect, because I believe there is a lot in common between the current Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister. I reckon they are quite equal. They will do whatever and say whatever to keep their job. The former Prime Minister, before the election, said there would be a unity ticket on funding for education and health. What happened after the election? In the first budget we had $80 billion cut from health and education. This Prime Minister, before he became Prime Minister, said, 'I want to do the right thing by the Australian people.' But now that he is Prime Minister he is backing in those cuts all the way. Eighty billion dollars has still been cut from health and education. This is a Prime Minister who, like the previous guy, will do whatever to save his job.

He will not go and talk to the workers who are on the lawn out the front of Parliament House who have lost their jobs under this government. He will not go and talk to the cleaners, the cleaners who keep Parliament House clean, and support them in a fair wage claim—no. He will do whatever he can to save his own job, just like the previous guy, who would do whatever and say whatever to save his job, and do nothing whatsoever to stand up for Australian workers and stand up for Australian families. The Australian people know it. Doing whatever to save your own job is just not good enough for the Australia people.

See this speech in context