Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I think you need to read it carefully, Chair. The actions are clear from the coalition. They do not care about their local communities. They do not care about the education system. They do not care about the climate. They do not care about anything else other than themselves. As long as the money is pouring in from Gina Rinehart and Twiggy Forrest to make sure that their election coffers are kept well and truly balanced, then they do not care about anyone else. It does not matter if you have leaky roofs in the schools in Penrith. It does not matter if you do not have decent conditions in schools in Penrith; as long as the money goes to the private school system, they are happy. So we know what they are all about: they are all about looking after the big end of town, not anyone else.

That is why they want to get rid of the Climate Change Authority. That would be a check and balance on this terrible government the community has already said is no good, on a government that is one of the poorest ever to start off in this country. The public are onto them and onto them early. All these policies they said they would deliver are not going to be delivered unless it means crashing jobs for unionised workers in the car industry, unless it means destroying the environment for their short-term political gain. That is what they are about. They are the most hopeless government that has ever come in here. They have had the shortest honeymoon period of any government in the history of this country. They want to destroy the environment for the sake of their mates in big business. They have no capacity to stand up for the local communities. They have no capacity to stand up to big business. They will continue to run a position here that is economically illiterate and environmental vandalism. So I take the view that, the sooner we get to the next election and the sooner you lot are gone, the better, because that is in the interests of this country.