Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party are obviously very touchy at the moment because the Labor Party know full well where they are positioned. At the moment, the Australian people are sick and tired of the self-indulgent behaviour coming from the Australian Labor Party. Talk about revolving doors and prime ministers. The only job those opposite and those in the other place are concerned about is their own job. They have completely lost the focus of government. Their behaviour is irresponsible. The challenges are enormous, but what do we hear day in and day out? We get leaked views from cabinet ministers and we get people in the Australian Labor Party briefing against each other. And it is all about one job—that is, who the Australian Labor Party want as Prime Minister.

The mining tax is a classic example of why this government has completely and utterly lost the plot, but it is not just the mining tax. A litany of bad decisions by bad government ultimately is going to require at least two generations of future Australians to pay off this massive debt. We heard the extraordinary intervention from Senator Thorp today when Senator Brandis was talking about the fact that Labor governments cannot deliver a surplus. The direct quote from Senator Thorp is, 'So what?' That was Senator Thorp's response to the wanton destruction of this economy by both the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments. It is quite remarkable that the budget papers still talk about $2 billion to be raised by the mining tax. We now know that only $120-odd million has been raised. The only outcome of that is that the commitments made by the Labor government can only be met by borrowing. That is the only outcome of its appalling mismanagement of this economy.

Everywhere I go, at every function, at every community event, the one question I am continually asked is, 'When will these people be thrown out?' I do not know the answer to that question. I do not know whether they will be thrown out. What I do know is that the Australian people are heartily sick and tired of what they are seeing at the moment. As I said before, a political party that starts talking about itself to the extent that the Australian Labor Party are talking about themselves at the moment has abrogated their responsibilities as a government. They have denied themselves the right to govern. They have denied the Australian people being led by a government which, at the end of the day, are concerned about their welfare, about whether they have a roof over the head, about whether they have a job, about ensuring that people will at least have some confidence that their job is secure. None of that is occurring at the moment.

How can it be that when an enormous number of Australians are concerned about their jobs and the cost of living, and are concerned about illegal arrivals— (Time expired)