Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Medicare! Labor delivered Medicare—under constant threat by the Liberal Party, but Labor delivered Medicare.

What else has Labor done for us? Well, Labor has done many things. Labor put forward an actual plan for NBN. Labor has put forward actual plans to try and help with housing affordability. Labor has put forward all of these plans even while we're in opposition. Meanwhile, all this government has delivered while it has been in power is a litany of failure. People come into my electorate office or they phone—when their phones are working—to complain about the things that this government is doing.

But Labor has a true track record of delivery. Those on the other side may scratch their heads and think, 'What has Labor ever done for us?' But it is surprising the things that do not occur to them—things like standing up for people's working conditions in their workplaces, making sure that they have safe workplaces, making sure they have things like penalty rates and are able to look after their families, ensuring their kids can get a good public education and that their schools are properly funded, and ensuring that is there is a properly functioning health system in this country that is accessible to all people and is not being consistently undermined by those opposite.

Many times we hear—sometimes in the media and sometimes from people in our communities who may accost us in the streets—people say, 'I don't know what the difference is between the major parties.' If there is anything that is truer and clearer, it is that there are fundamental differences between our parties. The people opposite like to talk about being there, for instance, for small business, as I mentioned before. If there is one way—this is so crystal clear—in which this government is failing small business it is in its failure to deliver a properly-functioning, 21st-century broadband network for this country. But, at the same time, it is also failing small business because, instead of helping small business grow by making sure that Australians are in a position to buy the goods and services that those small businesses sell, this government is taking the money out of the hip pockets of ordinary working Australians on a regular basis, whether through not protecting their penalty rates or through increasing the Medicare levy that will be paid by ordinary Australians. At a time when there is economic fragility around the world, what does this government do? It takes money out of their pockets. And—wait for it—what has this government done for us? Big corporate tax cuts are what it proposes. Their priorities are writ clear every time they open their mouths or introduce legislation into this House. Their priorities are not about ordinary working Australians. The thing that this government has done for us is zilch. The thing that this government has done for ordinary working Australians is nada. It is and always will be only Labor that delivers for ordinary Australians to make sure that ordinary Australians have what they need in their hip pocket to provide for their families, that they get a good education, that they have a health system that will look after them and that there is a properly functioning welfare system to pick them up when they fall down. That is the fundamental difference between the two major parties and the two major groups in Australian politics today, and it is a record of which I am proud, it is a record of which everyone on this side of the chamber is proud and, quite frankly, it's a record that those on the other side should be ashamed of.

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