Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy continues to make allegations, continues to make things up, without any real evidence. We saw even the leader of the Labor Party this afternoon in question time asking questions about rumours. The basis of the Labor Party's questions in question time now is rumours. That is how shallow the Labor Party are. They completely failed in government. They completely failed manufacturing in government. There were 140,000 jobs lost when the Labor Party were in government. Some 140,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared under the Labor Party and yet, when we are trying to turn the economy around, when we are trying to turn around the mess that was left, they even voted against measures that they proposed themselves. They even voted against saving measures for the budget that they proposed themselves.