Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

We have done more in 10 months, and you can't stand it. You can't stand the fact that that is what we have done. We've gone around implementing our election commitments. We've gone around with the commitments we made to the Australian people to put those in place, and you have voted no at pretty much every single opportunity. That's what has happened, and that's why we find ourselves here, with 10 minutes to go, discussing this suspension motion, which won't even get completed by the end of the time the Senate sits. That's the strategic brilliance of what's being put before the Senate today!

We have been implementing our policies for women. We have been implementing our policies to invest in early childhood education. We have been implementing policies to put downward pressure on energy prices. You even voted no to that—$1½ billion going in to ensure people's power bills don't increase to the point that they otherwise would have, and you voted no to that! I mean, honestly! How do you go back to your jurisdictions and explain that to constituents? How do you go back and say: 'Oh, well, actually, you know what? The government tried to put downward pressure on your electricity bills, and we said no.' There's a badge of honour! There's something ticked off in Canberra!

What about the minute wages were getting moving? Getting wages moving is something you spent 10 years opposing. All the attempts that we make, like our secure jobs, better pay legislation—you say no, no, no. Nothing. All the bills that were in place for this week—you said no to all of them. National Reconstruction Fund? No. Housing Australia Future Fund? No. That's not good enough for those opposite! You didn't do anything in 10 years and you don't want to do anything for the next year either, it seems. The Housing Australia Future Fund—who could oppose putting extra money into housing? People of Australia, I give you those that will do that! Here they are, lined up, every single one of them!

Today's behaviour has been a disgrace, with two suspension motions on a day that we were sent here to do government legislation and you couldn't bear it because you don't want to get anything done.