Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join my fabulous colleagues from the class of 2013 and to reflect on what a tragedy that we find within the government today. There are two issues that I want a focus on. Firstly, there is the government's surrender monkey posture when it comes to our manufacturing sector. We cannot do this. We cannot have abattoirs and process our meats; we have got to export them live! We cannot have a creative manufacturing industry that exports around the world!

Well, we can. I have in my electorate some absolutely advanced manufacturing sectors that, with the right settings from government, we could drive forward. But this is a government that seems to think that cutting the wages of barristers and making waiting staff a little bit cheaper is what is going to drive us to innovation. We are going to have the barista-led recovery!

Secondly, I also want to join with my friends here to talk about the division that has been created. It is tragic. I am sure that it does not represent the majority of people on the other side when we look at the posturing that we are taking on this citizenship issue and the attitude that we took on section 18C. It is truly tragic that we are destroying this bipartisan— (Time expired)