Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

I never did? I'll compare backgrounds with you. When you were campaigning for the legalisation of dope at university I was working as a cleaner, mate. I'm not going to take interjections from Senator Murray Watt. We understand what it's like to earn a living, and the modern Labor Party—

Senator Watt interjecting—

That interjection again! I worked as a cleaner. I've done the hard jobs, mate. Apart from agitating for drug law reform, mate, with your mates at university, I'm not really sure what your cred is on this. The modern Labor Party, I'll tell you, doesn't have a lot of cred. When it comes to child care, they are now putting to the Australian people and to the government that instead of in fact prioritising low- and middle-income earners—as we are doing—we should be giving higher rates of subsidy to higher income earners. This is a government that has a proud record of delivering for families, a proud record of keeping childcare rates as low as it possibly can, as opposed to the Labor Party's policy which saw the out-of-pocket costs of child care up 53 per cent during their term in government. Their policies have been proven to fail, and that is why you have this existential crisis within the Labor Party where you get the wiser heads like Joel Fitzgibbon saying to the Labor Party: 'You need to remember who you are. We need to actually put the "labour" back into the Labor Party.' Our childcare package supports low-income earners and middle-income earners. It supports families who are doing it toughest. It supports them in making the choices that they want to make to get on and look after their families.