Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would be very, very pleased to share my contribution with you, Mr Deputy President. I will restart the quote:

Unemployment continues to edge towards 6 per cent and investment levels outside mining, as Reserve Bank deputy governor Phil Lowe pointed out this week, are at 50-year lows, despite rock-bottom official interest rates.

So we have inherited the frontbenches, the Treasury benches, and we know there is a problem. The Labor Party, the opposition—full credit to the small concessions that Senator Moore made in her contribution—are still blind to the fact that our country has a problem.

I just want to go back to Senator Moore's contribution where she reflected on the fact that we should start where we intend to finish. When we want to understand the motivation of our colleagues opposite, I think it is important to understand where they finished on 7 September. This might give some insight into their lack of willingness to understand and appreciate and acknowledge the serious economic predicaments they have left our country.

So where did the Australian Labor Party finish on 7 September? The coalition, in contrast to Labor, had swings towards it in every state and territory. The coalition finished well, achieving a majority of the two-party preferred vote in all six states for the first time since 1977. Where did Labor finish? Labor reported its lowest primary vote in 100 years. The Greens, Labor's friends in government, had their worst Senate vote in three elections. In my state of Western Australia, Labor's primary vote crashed to just 28.7 per cent. Senator Gallacher, are you grimacing?