Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take that interjection. The member for Burt claimed that the remuneration tribunal was about saving lives. I assure you that it was from a union perspective. It was nothing more than getting owner-operators off the road so that they could have union drivers in company trucks, pushing small businesses out. And then Labor have the audacity to come in here and debate 'the government's failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers'. It is a joke, an absolute joke, in and around that policy section.

We did not see them come in here and talk about the environment and how Labor policies of the future want to shut down the coalmines because they no longer have an appetite for it, and they scoff at us as a government when we say that coal-fired power stations will be part of the energy mix into the future. That is our policy position. We will make sure that our coal-fired power stations are clean into the future.

Those opposite did not come in here and talk about Labor's track record on 457 visas. It is appalling. Under the coalition, since we came to office, we have created over half a million jobs, with employment standing at a record high of nearly 12 million since December 2006.

We are the only government, a government that is a broad church primarily made up of small business, that can represent small business, consumers and growth in this country.

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