Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Speaker, the member for Wentworth and the member for Warringah. Before the last election, we heard the commitment from the LNP that there would be no cuts to education. What happened after it? They said there would be a unity ticket on Gonski. What happened afterwards? They said there would be no cuts to health. What happened afterwards? There is $50 billion planned.

The Australian public are a little like Charlie Brown. We have the LNP prime ministers who are like Lucy holding the football. They say, 'No, I won't pull it away. I won't pull it away. Trust me this time. I won't make cuts to education. I won't make cuts to health. I will have a unity ticket on Gonski. We won't have $100,000 degrees. We won't sack public servants. We'll look after the environment.' What happens every time they say that? Just like with Lucy and Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comics, the ball is whipped away and the Australian people are left to suffer. For too long we have seen the LNP prime ministers trot out one promise before the election and then do something else afterwards. It is time that we held them to account. We need the member for Wentworth to actually be true to what he was before the election, where he actually made some commitments and some promises rather than transmogrifying— (Time expired)

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