Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel proud and privileged to contribute today to the debate on Senator Fifield’s motion, which, in part, talks about the government having lost its way, saying that it has not delivered on its commitments to the Australian people. That is far from the truth. The time I am permitted between now and six o’clock does not provide me with anywhere near the opportunity to go through every example of what we have delivered to our constituency, the Australian people. Forgive me for focusing on only a handful of those matters—they are samples of our great achievements.

I will start with what our party stands for. The Australian Labor Party has always been there looking after working-class people, looking after working families. It is a grassroots party that delivers achievements and outcomes for people who need and deserve them. We ensure that workers’ rights are protected and the people trust in our achievements.

Conversely, if you look at the opposition, they did build up a huge surplus—we grant them that. When the opportunity arose, when we were heading down the path of a global financial crisis, there was a need to use that surplus. Surpluses are about delivering in areas of need—areas of need that were neglected for 11½ years. I am speaking about the health system, about roads, rail and school infrastructure. You may recall that in our first period of government we handed down a stimulus package which had a variety of opportunities to make the economy strong and to keep people employed. Without jobs, where would we be? We were not going to allow Australians to fail, we were not going to allow this government to fail. Nevertheless the opposition over there condemned and did not support our package. They did not want new infrastructure built in Queensland, they did not want school halls, they did not want libraries—