Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I was indicating that Steve Bracks is the sort of person that can sort the wheat from the chaff—unlike the opposition in this chamber. Quite contrary to the nonsense that was floated in this chamber yesterday by the shadow minister, Mr Bracks will be paid at the standard Remuneration Tribunal rate of no more than $572 a day. That is considerably less than the $2,750 a day that his predecessors were paid, such as Terence Cole, who ran the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry. This opposition know a lot about inflation, because they have caused this country a great deal of pain as a result of their policy. In terms of the inflationary effect, if we compare what the prices were seven years ago to what they are today, they would see a situation—