Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am just told it is already happening today: more such bills are coming our way. If that is not evidence that this is simply an irresponsible attack on the government’s economic strategy, sabotaging this government’s economic strategy, I do not know what could be. It is absolutely irresponsible. You are not the government. We have a government. We have a government that is responsible for putting forward a whole package of measures, a whole package of bills, a whole package of reforms—and we have to fund them. You cannot simply sit over that side of the chamber and say, ‘It doesn’t matter; we’ll just appropriate the money—it’ll be the government’s problem; the government will have to worry about it.’ That is absolute irresponsibility. You have shirked any responsibility you have, and this is simply an attack on this government’s economic strategy. You should be ashamed of yourself and you should withdraw it. I simply hope that the chamber does not fall for this underhanded attack on the government’s credibility.