Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Goldstein, it's a great pleasure to be able to rise to support this bill. I have to begin by referring to the speech by the member for Fenner. I've got to say that, in the context of his speech about this bill, it now seems that the phrase 'under a Labor government' rolls off his tongue so easily and with such predictability and hubris that sometimes you wonder whether he has jumped ahead of himself and the Australian people. In the end, every time he gets up and speaks in this place, it is with absolute confidence and conviction that he believes that he is just the factional apparatchik-in-waiting to take a ministry in a Shorten government. Of course, he is more than entitled to do so, if he wishes, but he has to actually recognise that this parliament is not over yet and we are not done yet. But it is a welcome thing to see him get up and speak on this bill, as it is to see the Labor Party moving it. At this point, they're not moving, as far as I can read on the board, with some sort of superfluous and pointless amendment to justify the extension of this debate and to justify dragging people down simply to vote on the purpose of a failed amendment. They're actually going to let this one go through, which suggests that they do think the bill's workable. The bill actually is the foundation of good policy. It's a bill that people need to make sure that we can provide the housing finance environment necessary for Australians who need the assistance and the backing of government.

No-one should really be surprised, because this government, at its heart, has the interests of Australians. The Prime Minister said this the day he was sworn into office by the Governor-General and took upon himself a flag to put on his breast—there was an image of the flag—to say that he was on the side of the Australian people.

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