Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to make a contribution to the take-note debate on the question asked by Senator McCarthy of Senator Payne. I don't quite know where to start today; it's an unusual one to be taking note of. I will perhaps go to the middle of Senator Pratt's contribution, where she talked about the very important issues of health, education, a strong economy and creating jobs—the things I know Senator Payne did refer to in answer to the question asked. It is important for those listening to the debate, those who are here today, to understand exactly what was asked—questions, again, about internal party politics, reports in papers and unsourced comments by MPs—something one coalition MP apparently said. Senator Pratt pointed to, rightly, a number of things that are important to Australian voters—things like funding our hospitals appropriately through our state governments and ensuring schools are appropriately resourced to educate our children so they can read and write. Something I've made mention of in this place many times before is that the functional literacy rate of adults in Tasmania is woefully low. It's these things that are important—not the things that we are taking note of today, not the question that we are spending half an hour of the Senate's time reflecting on.

A million jobs have been created across the country. That seems to have been lost in the consideration of what we spend our time in the Senate talking about, what the opposition focuses on during its time to interrogate the government about its policies and plans. Instead, we spend our time talking about this. Here we are, on Wednesday, and we have spent most of this week considering these internal political issues—things that matter to the press gallery but not to the people of Wragg Street, Somerset, or Mount Street, Burnie, or Collins Street, Hobart—all those people who actually depend on us governing in their interests.

It is important that we focus on what actually matters to Australians, not insider politics to fill the front pages of our daily papers and fill air time on Sky News, as fun as that might be. We've got to get outside the Canberra bubble. That's why I liked when Senator Payne, in answer to the question asked by Senator McCarthy, outlined some of the great achievements of this government. The rate of growth this economy has experienced under this government is something we don't hear questions about during question time; we talk about unnamed MPs providing quotes to papers.

The tax reforms that we've seen will benefit millions of small to medium businesses. Even though we are not taking note of it, my question was about that. The tax reforms, as Senator Payne referred to, will create thousands of jobs in regional Australia, where they're needed. These are important issues—ensuring Australians can pay the bills they are confronted with every month, making sure they can support their children as they grow up and are ready to leave home, and making sure families are financially capable of looking after themselves into the future. When I go out doorknocking, when I spend time at street stalls or country shows, people aren't asking me about this sort of stuff. They're asking us to just get on with the job and to do the right thing by them. And that means for us to actually focus on these things here in this place, in the Australian Senate—to get on with policy matters that actually matter.

But it is disappointing that we've seen debate degenerate to this level. I take issue with the opening line of Senator Pratt's contribution to this debate on taking note of answers, suggesting, 'It's not a women problem; it's a man problem.' I, as a father of three young boys, want to set an example for them about how to conduct themselves. We have values in our household. I have my own values as a Christian. I want to impart to them the right way to grow up, the right way to conduct themselves with women, with men, with old people, with young people—with people of all sorts of different views and philosophies on life. To characterise all the things Senator Pratt talked about as relating to gender—that it's a 'man problem'—I find offensive. I want us, in this place, to focus on things that actually matter to Australians, that matter to my children, when they take the reins as adults in the next generation, not the issues being asked about. (Time expired)