Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

As we as a parliament contemplate the legacy of a trillion dollars of debt that has been left to us by those opposite, and we contemplate how we manage that as an economy, it is very enlightening to have a bit of an insight into the way in which the previous government decided to spend taxpayers' money. The Australian National Audit Office tabled an audit report last Thursday that is scathing of the way in which the previous government spent taxpayers' money. This is a decade of rorts that we saw from the previous government. Let's just have a look at what the Australian National Audit Office had to say. And what it actually had to say, members—particularly of the Liberal Party, I would point out—was that it wasn't just Labor seats that missed out because of the way in which largely the National Party were benefited; it actually was Liberal Party seats. Many of the regional seats held by the Liberal Party members opposite missed out on meritorious projects because of the way the National Party administered this program.

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