Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am not sure where to begin, but I should make reference to the sledge that Senator Dastyari has made against my great state of South Australia and my home city of Adelaide. I find it extraordinary that Senator Dastyari can talk about education modelling and then weave in there some halal-eating or whatever it was—abuse of South Australia. It just goes to show how Senator Dastyari and the Labor Party are fixated only on Sydney-oriented issues and are out of touch, completely, with what is going on out there in the economy.

Going to the education of our youth, which is absolutely vital to our success and future prosperity as a nation, Senator Dastyari glosses over the fact that education funding, in real terms, has doubled over the last 20 or so years and yet, by almost every performance measure, the literacy and numeracy standards of our children and our students have been in steady decline. Something is not working. Senator Dastyari said it is just about more money. It is actually not just about more money; it is about delivering good and positive outcomes. That is something—accountability—that those on the other side of the chamber have never been very good at accepting. Their answer, like a lot of the socialist policies, is to throw other people's money at something with the appearance of achieving an outcome. They are never, ever held to account or hold themselves to account. They never put in performance standards that are going to be measurable, because it exposes how flawed and failed their policies generally are.

It is, I think, a testament to that that Senator Dastyari cannot even fill five minutes talking about education policy. He has to turn and slam Football Federation Australia and the championship league, which has been fantastic for the sport in this country, and then has to turn his ire on Adelaide and Adelaide United Football Club, which has been, I think, an inspiration to so many. Not only have we fought a number of finals; we finally took the championship home. We took the Premier's Cup home, of course, which was very important to finishing on top of the table and making the final. So, while Senator Dastyari wants to profess he is sticking up for students, he is actually sledging perhaps one of the most popular games in the country and in the world by making fun of the Adelaide United Football Club.

But that is the sort of thing we can expect. They get sidetracked. They cannot focus on one particular thing. We have seen them jump all over the place today in question time. They have not been focused, and it is clear, from my point of view, that they are like a rudderless ship over there. Their question time committee, which is planning the questions, does not know where to start. They do not have any fixed narrative, because the only thing they are consumed about on that side of the chamber is their own preselections and keeping their jobs. We know how they are tearing themselves apart, ripping into each other about who should be getting seniority in their preselections and things of that nature. It is unedifying to read about and to hear about. The whisperers, who come up to you and say, 'I am looking after myself but I am going to stick it to someone else over there in the preselection process,' are grubby to say the least but they are the sorts of side deals we see in the Labor Party all the time.

I think it is entirely unreasonable that Senator Cameron, who is a shadow minister, is put behind Senator Dastyari on the Senate ticket for the New South Wales Labor Party. It just does not make a lot of sense to me. Senator Cameron has seniority and high ranking, and it seems to me he has been marginalised and shafted just because of his extreme political views. I find that rather unusual. You have then got Senator Dastyari, who has been promoted to shadow opposition manager of whatever it was—business in the Senate or something—leading the charge against increased funding for education by the government. That is extraordinary. Here is a man that is playing the tactics of the Labor Party. He has got unfunded election promises coming out by a leader that is only supported by a tiny minority on the other side. They cannot wait to replace him—we know that from the conversations that we have on this side of the chamber with our opponents over there.

The budget tomorrow night is going to be an opportunity— (Time expired)