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

Chair, I probably understand more about the battles of country New South Wales than Senator McKenzie ever will, given that she is ensconced in her inner-city apartment in Elwood in Melbourne. She comes here lecturing us about country issues when she never goes there. What an absolute joke. When it comes to taxation, working class families need a government that understands what the issues are. If capital gains tax discounts to the big end of town through negative gearing is what this government is all about then we stand up against them

We are in the class war battle against that.

We are going to protect working-class families in this country, because the coalition do not. The coalition have absolutely no perception about the issues for working-class families in this country. They want to distort the tax system so the white shoe brigade in Queensland get all the tax benefits and ordinary working people are paying their full tax whack while their mates who put the money that pays for their campaigns in their electoral accounts get off scot-free. That is exactly what this mob is about.

They are an absolute disgrace with absolutely no comprehension of the key issues for this country. If they had any comprehension of the key issues for this country, they would not be in the chaos they are in now—fourteen ministers in 2½ years have gone down the tube. They are into their second Prime Minister. Prime Minister Turnbull knifed Prime Minister Abbott. What a joke they are! They have the hide to come here and say they look after regional and rural Australia. They have the hide to come here and say they look after ordinary working Australians. Look at taxation and look at what they did in 2014-15 budget and you will understand that they have no idea what the issues are in relation to working people. They look after the big end of town, because it is the big end of town that looks after the Liberal Party. It is a mutual 'look after' society. One looks after the other. That is the problem we have with this mob in the coalition.

We have a bad government with a weak leader. It is no wonder this government is starting to come under pressure. It is no wonder the Prime Minister looks so sick every time he has to go to the despatch box, because they cannot even run an effective fear campaign. One thing about former Prime Minister Tony Abbott is that he knew how to run a fear campaign. The current Prime Minister cannot even get his frontbench, his cabinet ministers, to understand what the fear campaign is about. Prime Minister Turnbull is saying that house prices will drop, and yet the shadow Finance Minister is saying—what is she? I think she is the Assistant Treasurer or the assistant finance minister—