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

I will try to tone it down a little bit and avoid inflaming those opposite. I am happy to speak on this matter of public importance brought by the member for Bradfield. It is interesting that something that is important enough to be introduced in parliament was not important enough for the member for Bradfield to stay and listen to. I think that goes to the nub of those opposite, really. They are happy to pay a little bit of lip service to cost-of-living issues but they will not actually vote for anything that will help. This is for the benefit of the member for Casey, someone a little bit younger. There was an ad back in the eighties for Stainmaster carpet, where there is a cleaning lady for Pro Hart comes in and says, 'Oh, Mr Hart, what a mess.' You could google it or look for it on YouTube. She says, 'You have left me this mess.' Obviously, those opposite are not Pro Hart—they are more no heart—but they have left us with a cost-of-living mess—and it certainly ain't art; I can tell you that.

Let's detail how the people of Australia were left with this cost-of-living mess by those opposite and it will help them. I am really keen to help a party of government. I am all for a party of government. I have seen what those extreme parties do when they come in here, but a party of government should listen because they are a little bit lost at the moment. They do not know where they're going. The first thing they need to know is where they are. If they are going to have any hope of being a party of government again, they need to work out why they would vote against $1.5 billion in support of the cost of energy. That is a cost-of-living issue.

People opposite have told me, 'You are sheep. You have to vote where the party goes.' They are the rules of the Labor Party. Those opposite get to decide every single time they vote on an issue—every single time. They are supposedly not sheep. Nodding like goats, I see, or like some other animal perhaps—a lemming or something like that.

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