Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is no surprise to see Senator Cormann could not last the distance on this. Clearly, Senator, your heart is not in this. You know that ultimately this is an important measure. This is about security. This is about the economic security of this country and the economic vandalism of those opposite, who think, like they did when they were in government, that they can just spend and spend and spend and it does not matter. We used to refer to the Democrats as the fairies at the bottom of the garden. Well, the new economic fairies at the bottom of the garden are sitting on the opposite side of the chamber, because they think it all does not matter. They can spend the budget money and they can block all these measures and that does not matter. The budget surplus—