Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald is laughing over there. I think it is a way to try and cover his personal embarrassment. Here we are at a point in time in our economic cycle when all of the experts are saying that this is a golden opportunity. There has never been a better opportunity in my lifetime to secure government bonds to invest in infrastructure than right at this moment—a moment when mining and the production phase is kicking in after the construction phase. We are going to a very different part of our economic journey. It is an opportunity for this government to lead and to get things going; but, instead, we see them playing some facile PR game, driving up and down the Pacific Highway, which was long ago funded by Labor to the tune of $7.9 billion, and pretending that they are actually doing anything. What I am really concerned about—

Senator Canavan interjecting—