Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a ridiculous excuse for a government; what a farce this government is. This has been a week of revelation. Not even I realised just how ridiculous this government has been. I'd like to start by telling the House that I have uncovered, finally, an explanation as to why this government has such a poor record when it comes to investment in infrastructure. Obviously, they don't like investing in infrastructure. They are not a government that is big on investing in infrastructure. They would rather complain about Labor than get to work and do anything. They would rather complain and whinge—we've seen that from the Prime Minister today. It turns out there is an even more interesting explanation for this government's failure to invest in infrastructure. And that explanation is this: it turns out they think that people will want to marry infrastructure if we change the marriage laws. They actually think that people will want to marry the Sydney Harbour Bridge. That's why they haven't invested in infrastructure—they actually think that it might lead to people getting married to infrastructure. We've seen Senator Abetz today in the news indicating that he thinks that, if we change the marriage laws to allow people to get married to each other, then the obvious and necessary consequence of that is people wanting to marry the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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