Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have come back from a week in the electorate of Lalor. It is always good to be home for that week and it is always good to catch up with the residents and the voters and see what they are thinking at the moment. Across last week, I was inundated with questions: when will we know what the government is going to do about the PPL; do they still think we are double-dippers; when is the budget due; when will this government deliver the NBN to our community? One of the big questions of the week was: why won't this government fund the last two years of Gonski? My community wants to know when this government will do any spending to build water infrastructure across this country. None of them are happy with the answers they are getting from the government. Of course, I cannot answer those questions, because those opposite cannot answer those questions. No-one in this place can tell my community what this government is going to do, because this government itself does not know what it is going to do.

In contrast, Labor has 50-plus policies on the ground, in the field. People know what Labor stands for. People know what Labor is taking to an election. People know that Labor will commit to education and that Labor understands that there is no innovation without education. They know what Labor stands for when it comes to looking after lower and middle income people. They do not know what this government stands for, because this government does not know what it stands for.