Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As always, Deputy President, I don't intend to hurt anyone, but certainly filibustering is an accurate description. Regardless, my point is the quality of the questions we had today in question time from those opposite. We'd expect it from some others, predominantly those on the crossbench—with the greatest of respect to them—but the quality of the questions that we had from the coalition today was quite outrageous. We had minister after minister providing answers to questions that were put to them, particularly around inflation, the cost of living and spending, but the coalition senators have been ignoring the fact that this government, having been in power for less than one year, has had a hell of a job of trying to fix up the mess of the last decade.

It's always important to put the facts on the table. I know those opposite, particularly three of my favourite senators over there, love facts on the table. My first question is: who racked up a trillion dollars of debt and had nothing to show for it? It was the coalition. Who had a spike in power prices just before the last federal election and didn't tell voters about it? It was the coalition. Who spent almost a decade deliberately putting downward pressure on wages growth? It was the coalition. Who also spent almost a decade telling the automotive industry to go away and not invest in domestic manufacturing here in Australia?