Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

to take the tough decisions, Senator Cameron, because it is not easy. It is very easy to sit there and not make decisions that would actually bring budgets back into surplus over time or that will help economies to transition. That is the tough work of government. You are very strong on the rhetoric, but very quiet when it comes to making the tough decisions. We need shoulders to the wheel right now here in the Senate to assist fix the train wreck that is our budgetary position and that you are in denial about. Again, where is the Labor Party? MIA. You are even blocking savings you identified when you were in government. You sit here day after day refusing to help us to put this budget back into the black over time. It is a travesty for the Australian people and it is a travesty for future generations that are going to have to deal with paying that back—particularly when you look at the demographic tsunami that is approaching and the constraints that will impose on the health budget, on the aged care budget. But where are you? You are much more prepared to carp from the sidelines than get on with the real job, the hard lifting and the heavy lifting.

When I think about the Labor Party in government, I think about the billion dollars a month in debt they have left us. That is a lot of hospitals; it is a lot of nurses; it is a lot of teachers; it is a lot of infrastructure for universities; it is a lot of roads; it is a lot of ports—it is a lot of infrastructure that would assist in creating jobs for Australian workers as the mining boom comes off. That is why we put that program in place so that there would be jobs for those people to go to and to ensure that the economy continues to grow. You just do not understand; it is not part of your DNA. The last time the ALP delivered a surplus in government, 'Wind Beneath My Wings' was a top hit and the Berlin Wall came down—it was 1989. There are people in this parliament right now who were not even born when you, as a reform party, had a reform agenda that recognised that debt was a problem for government. It is a very sad case—(Time expired)