Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, I am quite happy with moving forward because indeed we are. There is no more important issue than the education of Australia’s young people. There is the issue of mental health, which was raised in question time today. The Gillard government has been investing in mental health. We have for the first time a Minister for Mental Health and Ageing and we know there is more to do.

There are many innovative things happening in the Gillard government’s program and new investments being made in the mental health area. We have talked about the NBN—something that the opposition has no vision for. It has no vision to break the tyranny of distance that affects communications in this country. Our investment in the NBN is the equivalent of a whole network of national highways for what it will open up for our nation. It is the modern-day version of the great Snowy River scheme in the kind of nation building and investment it is.

We all use the highways, but it just shows what Luddites you all are if you cannot comprehend the kind of future that is open to us with an investment in modern day communications, with a huge quantum of data and what that means to our education system, to our health system, to entertainment, to community and civic engagement, to business in this country and to the way our commerce operates. There are things that we have not even dreamed of or imagined yet that the NBN will be defining as part of this nation’s future. There is the Murray-Darling Basin plan. This is a government with courage to tackle the tough issues. And we are tackling the big issues.

None of this reform is easy. It requires consultation, communication and public engagement. But what are you doing? Misinformation. That is what we are getting from the coalition. That is not going to help irrigators and regional communities that are affected.