Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the member for Perth up on a couple of points. Cuts to JobKeeper? We were the ones who instigated JobKeeper, which saved 700,000 jobs during a global pandemic. The member for Perth asked what we got for, to use his term, a trillion dollars worth of debt, and he said that is placing the pressure on the current government as far as cost of living is concerned. It's not a trillion dollars. But what that debt did for the Australian public was it retained their jobs and, moreover, it kept their lives safe. During the pandemic, when we were faced—

I didn't interrupt, so please don't interrupt me, member for Hunter. When we were faced with potentially 50,000 lives being lost due to the global pandemic, we made urgent steps. Yes, we were just about to get back in black, and what we did was we made sure that we Australians' lives safe. We did was we made sure we kept Australians' jobs safe. Yes, we racked up the debt, but it was necessary, it was needed, and it was the right and responsible thing to do. That's what we did.

On another point he made, no one was forced yesterday to back the censure motion. When you are a Liberal or a National, if you cross the floor and vote on policy, a piece of legislation or a motion that the rest of your colleagues aren't voting on, you don't get expelled. You don't get thrown out of the party. I know—I've done it. I voted against the Murray-Darling Basin draft plan and the buybacks that Labor wanted to introduce. I wasn't kicked out of the party. I wasn't expelled from the party.

A word of warning for the member for Perth, if he doesn't already realise this: if he decides to go against the party line, he will be expelled from the party. I wouldn't wish that upon him, because I know he has a deep and enriched history with the party, having been an advisor for several Labor luminaries, including former Prime Minister Rudd. I know his background, I don't know whether he's ever run a small business. I don't know whether he's ever taken the risk of running—

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