Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You people know nothing about the bush, you and the Greens, and I am tired of it. I am going to get louder and stronger and I am going to speak as frequently as I can to continue to expose you to the Australian community. They rely upon this government to support them and provide them with the infrastructure and the support they need to underpin the wealth that you enjoy in this nation. Now you have distracted me. Leave me alone for a minute.

We now have $75 billion committed to infrastructure outside the cities of this country. This is going to build an environment where these people can get on with the job. These are people who do not get out of bed when you get out of bed. These are people who get out of bed in the dark and come home in the dark, and they do it seven days a week. I said here recently in a speech that all they do is kneel down and pray for rain. All they pray for is rain and an eighth day. They need an eighth day to do the washing and to get themselves started so they can start their seven-day week again.

I am tired of the resistance that comes from the opposition and the Greens, and particularly the Greens. You can feel good, because I feel less about them. They are one pink feather from being a flock of galahs, that mob. All of you together resist the legislation that comes through this place time and time again. You resist, in a bloc, legislation that would benefit these great people of the west of our country, who underpin the great wealth that you, your families and your communities enjoy. If they were not there, you would not have anything to eat or anything to wear or a floor to walk on. You would not have a tin roof to keep the rain off your heads. So I intend to keep your feet to the flames and expose you for your resistance to country Australia.