Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection. Thank you, Senator McKenzie. It is not in their DNA, because we have seen it happen time and time again. On this side of the chamber we know what we have to do to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future. We know that it is not always going to be easy. We know we are going to have to take hard decisions and we know we are going to have to do what Senator Leyonhjelm and Senator Day are proposing today, which is to consider cutting government spending. We have to do it; we have to do it because it is the responsible thing to do. It is the responsible thing for any government to do—to look at the future, to make sure that we are living within our means, to make sure that we have those policies in place that are going to ensure long-term prosperity when it comes to health, education, the environment and agriculture. There is so much that agriculture has to offer in terms of our long-term prosperity, but that will have to be a speech for another day.

We understand that on this side of the chamber. The coalition government is absolutely prepared to take the tough decisions to make sure that we have a prosperous nation not only for us but, as I said, for our children and for their children as well, because it is our responsibility to do that. It is our responsibility to get it right. We will make those tough decisions. It is not always going to be easy and it is not always going to be popular, but it is going to be the right thing to do. We all sit in this place and we know that those on the other side had their six years; they had their chance to prove that they could do it; they had their chance to prove that we could see from them some plan for the future. They had their chance—and they blew it. They had their chance and they failed. And now this coalition government has to fix the previous Labor government's mess. And we will do that. As I said, it is not always going to be easy; it is not always going to be popular. But I would say to the Australian people: always, always keep in mind that the coalition government will do this for the right reasons. The difficult decisions will be taken for the right reasons, and the right reasons are: ensuring that we have those policies in place to give our children and our grandchildren a prosperous future in this nation.