Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The last time the Prime Minister stood with his close friend and factional ally Premier Jacinta Allen, the Prime Minister thanked the Premier for her 'leadership'. But Premier Allan has tanked Victoria's economy, piled up the debt and made Melbourne suburbs less safe. Why is the Prime Minister taking the failed policies of the Victorian state Labor government to a national level?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last part of the question is in order, but, really, the first part the Prime Minister is not responsible for—that is, for other governments. But as long as he makes his answer relevant to what he is responsible for, it is in order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it has to be pretty broad, that one, Mr Speaker. The member for Menzies is lost. He thinks he is in—I'm not sure—Spring Street. What my government has done is work constructively with state and territory governments across the board. We work constructively with the governments, for example, of Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and the Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who I was with—there is a bit of an Italian connection with us three, of course. We work constructively not just on building the economy and creating jobs but on opposing this opposition's nuclear plan going forward, because that's absolutely friendless. What I did when I would have been with the Victorian Premier was to sign an agreement to deliver additional schools funding for every Victorian student, and I make no apologies for that as well—over $16 billion on the table to make sure every student in the great state of Victoria, just like we want in every state, to get the best opportunity in life through a better education. And the way you do that is by dealing with the reforms that were put in place and recommended by David Gonski all those years ago—14 years ago. But it has taken the re-election of a Labor government to fulfil the vision of David Gonski and another great Victorian representative, former prime minister Julia Gillard. That is what we are doing. Just last week we had $1.7 billion, including substantial additional funding for Victorian hospitals.

The question for the member for Menzies is: is he against that additional hospital funding? Is he against the additional education funding? Because the member for Menzies, when I was in his electorate—or what will be his electorate that he is running for at the next election—just a short while ago, when the Leader of the Opposition was advocating his new-found love of China and all things that are connected with China for the lunar New Year, they were out there talking about 'getting back on track'. Now, every Australian will know what that means—back to rising inflation, back to wages deliberately low, back to aged care in crisis, back to bulk-billing in freefall, back to child care being out of reach, back to chasing manufacturing offshore, back to veterans waiting years for benefits, back to chaos and multiple ministries; that is what they presided over. Keep that in mind next time you hear someone talk about 'back on track'.