Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is Labor's advocacy which has ensured we are here today. I hear the Assistant Treasurer interject, 'No, it's not.' Well, we simply have to look at the range of reforms that have been led by Labor during this term of parliament. We had, just back in February, the example of Labor's laws on access to justice, which were introduced by Labor into the Senate, passed the Senate on the voices when the coalition decided that they were going to lose the vote on the floor and then were passed through the House—another Labor reform passed through this parliament. This reform today would not be being debated were it not for Labor's strong advocacy and for the catch-up politics in which the coalition are engaged.

The Hammond review simply ensured that the ideas in the Ketter review were brought to this parliament. But Chris Ketter's work as chair of that Senate Economics Committee laid the foundations for Labor's reforms and ensured that Labor was able to get to this point.

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