Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Get out there and tell people that you voted against every chance for Australian jobs to be saved. To have to listen to that rubbish—you sicken me.

I want to talk about the spending. As Senator O’Brien said, half of the spending is going into schools. That lot on the other side do not want to see one single cent spent in a school, but they have their boofheads in every photo they can. They cannot wait for the opportunities to get to the ribbon cuttings. I can just imagine the ‘Bernardi Bugle’ or the ‘Wacky Williams Weekly’. If we see some photos of you anywhere near a school, look out. And do not take that lightly; it will be in this chamber that quick. It is absolutely shocking opportunism.

What you should be out there doing is going to all those schools in that fine state of South Australia, Senator Bernardi, or New South Wales, Senator Williams, and saying, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I voted against you having this gymnasium. I voted against you having this library. I voted against you having this undercover area.’ You wouldn’t do that would you? You would not go to one school and own up to that. You are all heroes in here. Take 30 steps out to your right and make those statements. They are disgraceful, that is what they are. I want also to touch on some of the figures that have been bandied around, apart from the 200,000 jobs that have been saved so far—and I hope there will be a heck of a lot more. We are talking about $14.7 million—and if that saves jobs we should be crucified! We should be embarrassed because we have saved jobs!

Another wonderful initiative I want to talk about that is part of the stimulus is the $22 billion national building infrastructure plan.