Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, this is a matter of 'not-very-importance', because there are three people opposite for the matter of public importance, so I'm going to digress for a minute and talk about something slightly personal. Today would have been my mum's 90th birthday if she were alive, so happy birthday to Peggy Perrett—Ellen Margaret Perrett—single mother of 10, who produced some wonderful people, including me!

I'll go back to the matter of public importance. We're actually talking about cost of living, something we on this side of the parliament clearly care about, while those dilettantes opposite pay lip service to it. Since they came into opposition they've been like born-again Vinnies, Salvos, Sikh Volunteers, Muslim Charitable Foundation—those sorts of people. They're cosplaying friends of the working class: Comrade Dutton and the Bolsheviks, who suddenly care about the poor people. Let's look at their record. For 21 of the last 27 years, they've been on the treasury bench. What have they done in terms of looking after the working class? They like to cosplay, but they don't actually understand what their policies have visited on the poor people of Australia. We care about the working class. We care about all Australians. But I remember their policies and the bloodhounds of robodebt, sicking those horrible beasts onto poor people. Lives were lost.

We had a royal commission into insulation when we insulated a couple of million homes, because there were two or three or four deaths. Think of the lives lost because of their decisions. And they're shameless. They don't apologise. The minister responsible for robodebt sits there smirking. We've never had an apology, but they dare to have an MPI to talk about cost-of-living expenses when we know that we've got the settings right.

One of the big things is getting the energy costs right. Yesterday we saw former prime minister Abbott's painting hung under the flagpole. Today marks 13 years since Tony Abbott became Leader of the Opposition. Since then, this nation's energy policies have gone to hell in a handbasket. We've had 20-odd energy policies, and all can be traced back to Tony Abbott becoming the leader of that dreadful group opposite.

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