Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've said it before and I'll say it again, 'When this bloke stands up you know why Christopher Pyne sent him here. It's so we'd all miss Christopher Pyne, because Christopher Pyne certainly wouldn't win a gold medal for boring for Australia. I mean, they're losing it, aren't they? We just heard the last speaker say, 'Where's the minister? Why isn't he here? I haven't seen him for weeks.' He was just here in question time and answered every one of your questions. But don't let facts get in the way of your pre-prepared little rant. It is pathetic.

They were a hopeless government. Their whole magic trick for the last two years is to try and make Australians forget that they were the government under Abbott and Turnbull and Morrison and the entire tragic catastrophe—three prime ministers, three treasurers, six defence ministers and God knows how many in total through the ministry. But no, it's not about them at all. They were a hopeless government and they're also no good as an opposition.

They could bring any topic they choose for debate in the MPI. Their job—here's a tip—is to bring a topic about the big issues facing the future of the country. But no. They always bang the fear drum, they take the low road, as the former Prime Minister said, 'the hand in the chum bucket' whenever they get up to speak.

It's pretty telling though, isn't it? They want to talk about safety and security, but they never want to talk about economic security, do they? It's always telling the topics they don't want to bring to debate. They don't want to talk about the strength of the jobs market, with more jobs created than any first-term government in Australian history. They don't want to talk about inflation coming down, which is critical for interest rate cuts. They don't want to talk about Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts or the $300 energy rebate.

They certainly don't want to talk about the two surplus budgets that the government has delivered—the first in 20 years—that they couldn't deliver in a decade in office, despite getting the cups made. Remember the 'Back in Black' cups? They don't want to talk about debt being $153 billion lower in the forecast than the trillion dollar of Liberal debt and the mess they left behind. They certainly don't want to talk about safety and energy security, or that the retail energy bill benchmark is trending down after a decade of their mess. They certainly don't want to talk about a future made in Australia.

No, it's all fear and loathing negativity, because they have nothing positive to offer. The Leader of the Opposition is all negativity; he has no plan. We saw that in the budget reply speech. Here's a tip: being negative is not a plan. Being angry every day is not a strategy. It is anger overload over there, as you've seen. They've got nothing to say on the cost of—

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