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

I do know a bit about his work in the time that he has been in parliament. I would like to reflect on his work as the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics. One particular inquiry I had an interest in was on the bill—and it was certainly a bill that was well defeated in this chamber—to overturn Queensland legisla­tion dealing with the wild rivers declaration. If you recall, we as a government were quite successful, with the support of former Senator Fielding, in opposing a private member's bill of Mr Tony Abbott and, I think, a senator from the Northern Territory. Mr Thomson quite comfortably, approp­riately and competently dealt with the inquiry on that particular matter and demonstrated the commitment and the respect that he has from this government to lead such committee. It is important that people have the opportunity to understand that his work has been appropriately achieved and has been respected by this parliament.

One of the telling points about policy of the opposition was made by one of their senators, Senator Helen Coonan, who I do have a degree of respect for. I have witnessed some of the work that she has done in some of the inquiries that I have been involved in. In an interview last Thursday she was questioned about the likelihood of an election some years down the track and she took a poignant position on the need for the opposition to start rolling out policy. If that poignant point she made an issue about is the case, I would wonder why she is resigning from the Senate. Surely, if there is a need to create policy as an opposition, now is the time to have people like Helen Coonan in this chamber to put forward good policy as the alternative government? But that is not going to be the case because she is leaving this place, and that tells a story about the opposition. There is no opportunity for them to deliver on policy.

We know some of the policy that they have put forward is going to cost this country $70 billion and no doubt cost jobs. It is already out there in the media that the opposition are going to sack 12,000 public servants. We already know because it is on the record in the media that they are not going to discount making some changes to the pension. These are the policies that they are not putting forward but that we hear about in the media. That is where they deliver their policies—in the media. They do not come into this chamber and debate them. They do not come into this chamber and put forward policy that can be debated. They put it out in the media. We should not ever forget the underlying policy that brought them to defeat in the last election, and that was Work Choices. We know that is going to be on the agenda next time around to strip away workers' rights and conditions. (Time expired)