Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I'll do my best to give an answer to a nonquestion. I'll do my best. But I'm asked in general about cost of living. I'm happy to speak about cost of living, because it's only this side of the parliament that have raised cost-of-living measures, that have taken action on cost of living through each of our three budgets and, indeed, every day in this parliament through question time. Whereas those opposite have looked for culture wars, have looked for things they can create arguments over, which Australians aren't interested in and which have engaged in the sort of nonsense that we've seen here today, expressing, quite frankly, contempt for regional communities that those opposite represent in their own electorates, including, of course, the regional communities in Queensland. Now, it stands in stark contrast, I'm sure, to people like David Crisafulli, who I spoke with this morning as well, who's up there in North Queensland dealing with real issues in those communities.

It says a lot about the priorities that those opposite have had, with the nature of the questions they've had today. Having come into this parliament and voted against cheaper medicines, energy rebates, cheaper child care, the crackdown on supermarkets and tax cuts for every single taxpayer, they then try to get their act together with a two-page question which they don't get to. This morning we had production tax credits go through the parliament without a vote because they didn't have anyone in here. I know they're down to 50-something, but you'd think two of them could turn up. Yesterday we had the poor old shadow minister try to call a division but they didn't have a seconder for it.

They have lost their way. They have not been capable of developing a coherent policy alternative. As I've said, they will take just three policies to the election at this stage: the $600 billion nuclear reactor plan, the $10 billion for long lunches—and $10 billion could buy you a fair bit, like nine million free services in public hospitals, 139 million GP visits, 78 million prescriptions, or the annual salary of 90,000 nurses, but no, the priority of those opposite is free lunches for some, paid for by every single taxpayer—and the other thing is cuts, but they won't tell you until after the election.

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