Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is difficult to follow two speeches such as we've just heard in the chamber about the circumstances that we're in, and it's pretty clear to anyone that this is not the finest hour of the government. It is a very difficult time, and I know Senator Sterle feels that from the heart, because he lived that for six years between 2007 and 2013. It is difficult, but it has to be resolved. But just racing off to an election isn't the solution to where we sit today. Getting over what's occurred this week is going to take some effort. It's going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of goodwill by members on our side. If you look at the way that the Labor Party are operating at the moment, they've obviously had to deal with some significant internal issues post 2013, and we're going to have to do the same.

What the Australian people have been telling me this week—and I've said this a number of times publicly—is that they just want us to focus on them. We have to get past this, we have to deal with the issues that we're dealing with at the moment, but they clearly want us to focus on them. Quite frankly, I don't believe they want another election, certainly not on my patch, because we just had one. The Labor Party and the coalition went head-to-head and we fought a nil-all draw, effectively. I think 88 votes moved after that long, 11-week campaign. I don't think the Australian people want another election. They want us to get back to focusing on them and governing for them. I'm proud to say that this government, despite what we've seen this week, has a very good record in that space. It really does. We have achieved things that governments for two decades haven't been able to achieve, and through some of the ministers in this chamber. For example, the media reform that was passed by this parliament has eluded governments of all persuasions for 20 years. It's a credit to Senator Fifield that he was able to negotiate with the industry something that they could all support and that could then be passed through this parliament. So this is a government of achievement.

We were told that we wouldn't be able to do those things. We were told that the crossbenchers would be too difficult to deal with, that we wouldn't be able to get our legislation through this parliament. But we have. We've legislated for tax cuts for individuals, and we're proud of that. We've legislated for tax cuts for small business. We've also legislated for tax cuts for businesses with turnover up to $50 million. We know that if the other side are successful at the next election they will put taxes back up. We've legislated for tax to come down to 25 per cent for businesses with turnover up to $50 million. The Labor Party's policy, even though it's masked in tricky language, is to put that tax rate back up to 27½ per cent. So Australians know, and Australian business knows, that under the Labor Party they will pay more tax.

I can tell you that the nans and pops in my neck of the woods know that they could lose up to 30 per cent of their income, their total income, through the Labor Party's nan and pop tax proposal. They're going to use that money to pay for tax cuts for everyone else, but I don't know anybody who wants their nan and pop to lose up to 30 per cent of their income so that they can get a tax cut. And Labor are going to raise billions of dollars through that measure. They don't understand that somebody will lose up to 30 per cent of their income just so that someone else can get a tax cut. It's an outrageous policy. Even on our worst day—and, let's be fair, this hasn't been a cracker for us—I think we're better than the other side. So we will work our way through this and we will provide the opportunity for the Australian people to vote for us at the next election.