Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. During this question time, on eight occasions the Prime Minister has lacked the courage to admit that he broke his promises. Enough is enough. Will this Prime Minister come to the dispatch box, look Australians in the eye and apologise for his lies?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw unparliamentary language.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every Australian knows the truth.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I said the member will withdraw.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So we are lacking a question; you might like to rephrase it.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During this question time, on eight occasions this Prime Minister has lacked the courage to apologise—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. You very generously allowed the Leader of the Opposition to mount an argument that was masquerading as a question. He is now trying to do it a second time, and you have given him another chance. Either he has to ask a genuine question or you should sit him down and take the next question from this side of the House.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point I was making was I made the Leader of the Opposition withdraw the word that was totally unparliamentary, and he knew it. He has now withdrawn it, so there is no question before the chair. I said he may rephrase it; it does not mean to use the same argumentative material.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Throughout this question time, on eight occasions the Prime Minister has had put to him what he said before the election. Will the Prime Minister now admit that he has broken his promises and apologise to the Australian people for misleading them?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Misleading' did not help, either. There are other forms of the House.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to get the thesaurus out. Australians know what it is: fabrications, untruths, guile. Before the election he did not say he was going to do what he did in last night's budget. Will he apologise?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

May I say to the Leader of the Opposition that he is all politics, no policy; all complaint, no solutions. And I might offer this thought to members opposite—that confected moral outrage is no basis for governing a country—

Mr Shorten interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will desist. You have asked your question.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And it is one of the reasons members opposite are utterly unfit for government.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And the member for Grayndler will desist.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting —

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What this country needs is a government which is prepared to confront the reality that our country faces, the reality of debt and deficit stretching out as far as the eye can see, the debt and deficit disaster which the members opposite, the Labor Party, created. This government did not create the problem but we take responsibility for addressing it. We take responsibility for fixing the problem—the debt and deficit disaster that Labor created. I think that is exactly what the people of Australia elected us to do and I am proud to serve them in my capacity as Prime Minister of this great nation.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the Prime Minister's answer, the member for Isaacs made a grossly unparliamentary remark and I will ask him to withdraw it.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask the member for Isaacs to withdraw his comment.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. How will the government's infrastructure plans boost productivity and create jobs in Western Australia?

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Durack knows that the budget, which the Treasurer delivered last night, provides a record amount of infrastructure spending in this country and Western Australia does not miss out. In fact, there will be $4.7 billion of infrastructure investment in Western Australia over the next few years. It will be investment in productivity lifting and in enhancing infrastructure, which will mean more jobs and greater prosperity for our country. This investment is $16.5 billion more than the Labor Party promised during their election campaign on infrastructure—$16.5 billion more for funding projects such as the Great Northern Highway, the North West Coastal Highway in the member's electorate of Durack, the Swan Valley bypass and the Gateway WA project. But importantly we will be funding a new project in this budget, the Perth Freight Link project—a $1.6 billion project. For this new project, $925 million is being funded by the Australian government, a 20 per cent contribution is coming from the Western Australian government and the remaining funds are made up from the private sector investment—for the first time in Western Australia.

This project will be a huge benefit for the member from Durack because all the goods from her part of the world, which are our great export lifeline, will be able to be moved more quickly through Perth, getting trucks off the major highways. This will also mean commuters can drive on the roads without competing with big trucks. This is a huge reform, thanks to the innovation of the infrastructure Prime Minister and his government, and the Western Australian government. This is not only a $50 billion program; it is a program with innovation at its heart.

The Labor Party did not support and was utterly opposed to the WestConnex—Stage 2 project. It was also utterly opposed to and did not have any idea about the East West Link project in Melbourne and the North-South Corridor in Adelaide—we are delivering both projects. The Labor Party did not have it within its wit to do so. This is the infrastructure Prime Minister driving productivity growth in our country, driven through a Treasurer who has put in place in the budget the money required to ensure that these projects get done—not just announced on whiteboards but actually done and delivered. New projects worth $50 billion is a fantastic development for Australia—that is, more jobs, more growth and a stronger Australia.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The day before the election, the Prime Minister promised no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions. Will the Prime Minister now apologise to the Australian people?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This question is coming very close to a previously asked and answered question but I will let it stand.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand by what I said before the election. I absolutely stand by what this government has done in last night's budget. I am absolutely confident that, when the Australian people come to judge this government and this opposition in 2016, they will vote for a government which has been faithful to its pre-election commitments. Do you know what the Australian people were looking for in the election last year? After six years of dysfunction, the people of Australia were looking for some leadership. They were looking for a government that was prepared to make not the easy decisions but the hard decisions. The people of Australia were looking for leadership. Last night they found it.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the government delivering better outcomes for Australian school students through the budget?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to tell the member for Swan that we are delivering better outcomes for school students across Australia through this budget. We are doing it by funding our election commitments to the letter, whether they are through teacher quality, a robust curriculum, principal and school autonomy or parental engagement. We are funding all of those commitments to the letter.

Even better, we are keeping the commitment we made before the election that we would fund the new school funding model in exactly the same way as Labor for the next four years and that is what we are doing. We have also put $1.2 billion back into school funding which the Leader of the Opposition took out when he was the ninth Minister for Education in the previous government.

The Leader of the Opposition would like the people to forget that. They would like the Australian people to have the memory of a goldfish, as the Leader of the Opposition has. But we will not forget and we will keep reminding the Australian public that the Leader of the Opposition removed school funding and we have put it back. Ironically, we are spending more in 2017 on school funding than Labor would have if they had been re-elected.

On Thursday night, the Leader of the Opposition will have his opportunity to fess up. He will have to stop being the No. 1 whinger in Australia. He will have to start having solutions rather than being all complaint and no responsibility. If No. 1 whinger in Australia were a reality TV show, there would be no point in any other contestant entering it—because if Bill Shorten entered it, he would win it! But on Thursday night the Leader of the Opposition has an opportunity—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madame Speaker!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will refer to people by their correct titles.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will. I withdraw. On Thursday night, the Leader of the Opposition has to do three things. He has to explain how he would address the debt and deficit disaster left by the previous government. He has to explain how he would address that. Secondly, he has to explain how he would fund the physical and skills infrastructure that Australia needs in the future without just borrowing more money from overseas, as the previous government did. He has to explain how he would deliver the infrastructure that we are delivering while reducing the tax burden by $5.7 billion over the budget. Thirdly, he has to explain how he would establish a sustainable safety net for Australians into the future, because that is what we did in the budget last night. In this budget, Australians have found that they have a government of adults who will make the tough decisions to make the safety net, which we on this side of the House all regard very highly, sustainable into the future—and not just by borrowing more money overseas. If he does not meet those three tests, explaining how he would deal with the budget, then he will not measure up as Leader of the Opposition on Thursday night.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.