Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, Kapunda. I do know something of Mildura. I spent my time picking apricots and peaches up and down the river. I understand the wealth that irrigation can produce. I understand the wealth that farmers create for this country and just how hard they work and the conditions they work in. I can remember people going broke. People I went to school with—their parents going broke. And it is a very difficult, harrowing experience for everybody in the community. So we don't want to lessen some of the emotive stuff that gets talked about in this chamber. But we do have to acknowledge the other thing that country people tend to hate, in my experience, which is boondoggles. They don't like boondoggles, they don't like waste and they don't like chaos. They tend to be pretty orderly people.

And what do we see from this government? This week we have seen complete chaos—chaos flowing on from a government that's essentially had two prime ministers and a Leader of the Opposition in it. I think they've had three Defence ministers, 14 or 15 other ministerial changes—

Mr Tehan interjecting—

Of course, those opposite sitting at the table—the Minister for Veterans' Affairs likes the chaos because he's been promoted through it. It's been a great boon to his career. He wouldn't have gone very far if there had been stability in their ranks. I'm not so sure about—

Mr McCormack interjecting—

According to the next speaker, it was just merit.

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