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

It's all right for the National Party, bellowing away as they are. You understand that this was a John Howard rort that we are trying to fix and will fix in government because we are concerned to make sure that we've got enough funding for hospitals, health, education and infrastructure. These are the key issues for Labor and we're going to make sure that those that should be paying tax are paying tax.

This was Senator Fierravanti-Wells in attack mode, trying to attack what is a good policy position, and she couldn't even do that with her prepared answers. This is a government, as I've said before, that is in terminal decline and a government that doesn't understand what the key issues are for working people in this country. They just don't get it. Senator Fierravanti-Wells comes in here, completely out of her depth at question time, is incapable of giving a proper response and then has to suffer the humiliation of coming back in here and saying that she'd got it wrong. The government have got this wrong. The government have got their whole position on dividend imputation completely wrong. They keep saying that this is about pensioners. This is predominantly about self-funded superannuants who are getting tax refunds for tax that they never paid. That was never, ever the reason why dividend imputation was introduced, and former Prime Minister Paul Keating has been clear and unequivocal about that position. The Grattan Institute has clearly belled the cat when it comes to the coalition trying to misrepresent the position, and again we have Senator Fierravanti-Wells coming in here misrepresenting the position and trying to indicate that poor people are suffering because of the proper policy that Labor has introduced on dividend imputation. Senator Fierravanti-Wells is completely out of her depth and is just making statements that are wrong.

But it's not just Senator Fierravanti-Wells who has been making statements that are wrong—it's the government, trying to protect the rich, trying to protect the powerful and trying to protect their mates at the big end of town against ordinary working families that don't get this type of refund that the rich and powerful get because of decisions that John Howard made many years ago. This is simply another example of a government that will say anything and do anything to try and mislead the public. You're in so much trouble that you can't even get prepared answers correct when you come to question time. You've got a frontbench who don't understand the key issues for ordinary Australians in this country, don't understand the need for a good education, don't understand the need for a decent health system and don't understand that you can't keep throwing money at people who don't deserve it. You can't keep throwing money at people who don't need it. You should actually be putting money into the key issues that are important for building a decent society and a decent economy in this country—and they are education, health and dealing with inequality.

All you as a coalition want to do is continue inequality in this country—look after the rich and powerful at the expense of the poorest people in this country; look after your rich mates; look after those who are putting money into your pockets at election time. That's exactly what your lot do. And now we have Minister Fierravanti-Wells having to come in here, humiliated because she couldn't even get the basics right during question time.

She can't get the basics right because your Prime Minister can't get the basics right. Your Prime Minister is trying to mislead the public on this issue. The Prime Minister doesn't have a clue about what's important to working families in this country. Why would he have a clue, living in his mansion on the shores of Sydney Harbour? He's so divorced from the reality that families face day in, day out, trying to pay their rates, trying to pay power bills, trying to put food on the table.