David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have been in this place for only a short time, but I imagine I will come to learn that the occasion of a state election is regularly marked by this kind of festival and performance. I am sure that everyone here will appreciate the fact that this is a custom I have not yet seen much of but I am sure I will see a lot more of. Clearly, the occasion of the Queensland election has meant that ‘team Queensland’ from the coalition have wandered in here today to do their very best to elect the unelectable in the north of Australia, and in that effort I wish them no luck whatsoever.

When considering Senator Mason’s ad for the cause of the LNP in Queensland, it did occur to me that it would be appropriate for me to respond by saying that we need to keep Queensland strong with, of course, a Bligh government. When we consider the very serious challenges that Queensland and indeed all of Australia face, we see once again that the coalition have no serious plan, indeed not even terribly useful rhetoric, to bring to the fray.

In the context of a global financial crisis, in the context of a world recession—a synchronised collapse in demand across the whole of the globe—it is time for us to be responsible. I note the headline on the front page of today’s Australian: ‘Unions opt for jobs over pay’. We can see that sense of responsibility pervading all of the body politic, with the noble exception of those opposite. The global financial crisis, while a matter of enormous importance, remains nothing more than an absolute conundrum for those opposite. It remains an issue about which they have no response and no clear plan. While the Rudd Labor government meets the challenge of the global financial crisis, the challenge of falling demand and the challenge of rising unemployment by putting jobs first and by introducing a stimulus package to protect jobs today and sustain domestic demand in critical sectors of the economy, we find those opposite are opposed to these measures. Those opposite are opposed to protecting jobs and they are opposed to all of the measures that we must take, that we are required to take. In their opposition, what do they offer as an alternative? They offer nothing.

The reason those opposite offer nothing is that they have only one plan, and we have seen it again and again and again. Their one plan—whether it be for the financial crisis and our stimulus package, whether it be for Work Choices and our plans to rip it up, whether it be for something like increases in the pension—is Mr Turnbull’s three-step: step 1, support the Labor initiative and wear the flag of bipartisanship; step 2, cast doubt; and, step 3, oppose. That is their plan for every single public policy challenge confronting Australia at this time. We saw that very clearly in question time today, when you referred to our CPRS as jobs destroying. You seek to lecture this government about taking responsibility while you refuse to take responsibility for anything.

Most beautiful to behold is the opposition twitching and turning as it deals with the challenge of the Fair Work Bill 2008. There we see the mask unveiled, the true opposition revealed in all of their glory. That is where we see that, despite Mr Turnbull’s utterances that Work Choices is dead, his brothers and sisters in the Senate are doing their very best to exhume it from the grave, pour electricity into its dead heart and parade it through this place. Every single contribution they have made—whether today or yesterday—has seen the zombie of Work Choices being led through this place. We can hear it in all of their utterances. We can see it in their questions in question time. You have not changed your spots, and you are doing a dreadful impersonation of someone who has. (Time expired)