Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's one thing the Labor Party always says, but it is just not the truth. The gross debt for our nation is not $1 trillion. In fact it wasn't even $900 billion. It was about $150 billion away from it when the Labor Party came into power. But don't worry; it's over $900 billion now! And when it gets to $1 trillion—and it will under the Labor Party—it will have happened on their watch. They are the government. And, if it cracks $1 trillion, it's the Australian Labor Party in government that created it.

The second thing that is very important is that, unless the Labor Party clearly define exactly what the changes are to the Constitution to have the Voice to Parliament, we are going to have a real problem when doing any advocacy out in regional areas. People are asking: 'Exactly what does this entail? What exactly are the words?' We can't answer that question. And because we can't answer that question, it doesn't matter what happens in this chamber. The Australian people will vote it down. That will cause more problems than if we hadn't had it in the first place. That will create real divisions in areas.

The next issue is the obvious one. Climate policy is absolutely destroying our country in the way it drives up power prices. If it's power prices you're worried about, climate policy is behind it. If it's fuel prices, it's climate policy; if it's food prices, it's climate policy.