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

I rise today proud to represent the people of Lalor, proudly Labor and incredibly proud to be part of the team that will go out and fight this unfair budget and this unfair government. Many people have asked, 'What is the point of our Prime Minister?' Journalists have been asking this question, community members in my electorate certainly have asked me this question. I think that across the last two days the Prime Minister has tripped over his arrogance and given us the answer to the question, what is the point of this Prime Minister. The point of this Prime Minister is a $55 billion gift across the next 10 years to corporations in this country. That is $55 billion taken from families across this nation, taken from women. What is the point, one asks, and one asks it seriously, because the one thing I thought this Prime Minister would do would be to show some respect for women and have his budget assessed for its impact on women, but on this he has critically failed. I did give him some credit for perhaps being progressive enough to do that, but he has failed. What is the point of this Prime Minister? We are starting to see his true colours come through. You can see it in the things that have changed. What has changed? A blue tie to a gold tie is all that has changed. This millionaire Prime Minister wears a gold tie.