Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was state governments, Labor state governments.

E68 Sterle, Sen GlennSenator STERLE—I am just reminded that there is a Western Australian over there—was it you, Senator Back?—running the blame game. What comes out of Senator Back’s mouth? The states, the states, the states. It is good to see that the chip is still implanted in half of them over there of the stupidity and the inaction of the Howard era. It is still largely there, even coming from a senator who has been in this place no more than one week. It is still alive and well in Western Australia, as is Work Choices. They cannot help themselves and, as my esteemed colleague Senator Arbib said in this chamber a couple of days ago, it is in their DNA.

The task of dealing with the legacies of inaction by the Howard government was already urgent when the Rudd Labor government came to office in November 2007. Because of the global financial crisis, the task is even more urgent today. The funding that will be provided by these appropriation bills will enable the government to get on with the task of assisting Australian families and Australian businesses to weather the economic storm that is currently—