Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

In addition to the department taking responsibility, I have taken responsibility as the minister responsible by saying, frankly, I think that was the wrong thing to do. But isn't it ironic that the party of 'no hoses' is here lecturing us about taking responsibility. We endured years of the former Prime Minister—

Opposition senators interjecting—

Well, we've learned what really gets these people going: it's cutting wages, and it's taking responsibility. They're the things that they get wound up about. The party that sat by under a Prime Minister whose only famous quote was that he didn't hold a hose now want to come and talk to us about taking responsibility? Over the entire three years or four years that Scott Morrison was the Prime Minister of this country there's only one thing he took responsibility for, and do you know what it was? It was keeping wages low. That's what he took responsibility for, because that was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. That's taking responsibility for keeping wages low. We're going to do the opposite. We're going to get wages moving again, and we're going to lift productivity while we're at it. (Time expired)