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

I do wish to make a contribution to today's debate but, before I do, I want to say that I have read a number of articles in the newspapers lately and it is amazing but there is a common theme that comes out of them, and that is, 'Be careful of what the Liberals say and what the Liberals will do.' Listening to the contributions coming from Senator Ryan and Senator Bushby today, I am absolutely confused. I hear Senator Bushby talking about jobs. I hear Senator Bushby talking about creating employment oppor­tunities. This would be the same Senator Bushby who voted against the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, the program that kept thousands and thousands of Australians employed through the global financial crisis.

I will not say that the contribution from Senator Ryan was hysterical because it was anything but. To hear Senator Ryan talking about nation-building stuff, you might think the global financial crisis was something that we made up. For goodness sake! I do not know how far the silver spoon was shoved into Senator Ryan's mouth but if he did not realise just how close we were to recession through those last couple of years of 2009 and 2010 then I do not know what planet he was on. It is absolutely ridiculous that we have that side of the chamber bagging the living daylights out of us. They are bagging us because we spend money to create employment, bagging us because we stimulate the economy to keep people employed, bagging us because we made a massive injection of some $16.2 billion during that terrible financial time in order to keep business people employed and to build fantastic facilities for generations of young Australians to come. Here is the rub: I have been to the opening of probably 50 or 60 buildings under the Building the Education Revolution, which was a federal Labor government initiative, and, holy be, who is in the crowd getting their photos taken? Have one guess.