Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's fine, thanks, Madam Deputy President. I don't need to read a speech to talk about education in this country and what the Labor Party did to education in 1990, with the Dawkins plan. If you want me to go off script, Senator Farrell, I'll do that any time, because I well remember what the Hawke-Keating government did to education in this country. They commoditised degrees in this country and treated our children like commodities. They introduced the HECS debt, basically enslaving our children to debt, just like Paul Keating did when he brought in the foreign banks to this country and let the RBA off their leash and inflated house prices. And now our students go to university and they end up with a massive HECS debt. They've got very little chance of getting jobs because everyone had to get a degree rather than stick with TAFE, and now they're in big trouble because the Button plan destroyed manufacturing. That was the perfect combination. 'Let's destroy manufacturing. Let's prop up the finance industry by giving unmitigated control to the superannuation industry, letting in the foreign banks and letting in foreign debt.' And what have our children got? Nothing. We've privatised all the infrastructure in this country. They've got degrees that don't get them jobs. And now they've got to give up 10 per cent of their incomes, which I spoke about earlier today—and Paul Keating himself admitted it came out of their wages. So I don't need a lesson from you, Senator Farrell, as to how destructive your party—