Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, sometimes you just make me wonder, you really do. You need good luck on the weekend, I understand. Good luck there.

What did we have? We had a question from Senator McGrath. It was a bit of an own goal, really, wasn't it? It was a bit of an own goal because, as we know, the budget actually took pressure off inflation and it did so through the Energy Price Relief Plan, which those opposite opposed. We had a very carefully calibrated budget and we had to do a number of things with regard to it to make sure that funding wasn't going to be provided where it wasn't needed any longer, that we weren't supporting the rorts from the previous government and that we were cleaning up. They had to have the former prime minister take over the economic portfolio, as well as everything else, so we had to make sure we knew where everything was and what was going on.

We on this side do understand the impact that interest rates have on households, but the centrepiece of our budget was a $14.6 billion cost-of-living package. It was over four years and it would ease pressure on Australians while putting downward pressure on inflation. If those opposite really cared about how people are going—Senator Rennick said, 'People are sleeping rough in their cars,'—let me ask you: why did you come in here and not support our Housing Australia Future Fund? Why did you come in here and not support it? You and the Greens cuddled up. It's a new coalition and it's an interesting coalition. I've got to say, it'll be great to see how it pans out over time, because eventually the opposition will realise that they can't meet the moral high ground of the Greens and they'll have a little tiff and we'll all go back to where we were before.

I really think that if those opposite really cared they would ask more than one or two questions in a week and a half about the economy. As I've said, they came in here and they've hit an all-time low, as far as I'm concerned. This is my 15th year in this place, and I've got to say that I've seen some pretty disgusting acts by some people in this place, but an all-time low is thinking he's somehow going to get the scalp of Senator Gallagher.

What you need to remember is that for two years people on your side knew what was going on with regard to that alleged issue, and you did nothing. It happened to a Liberal staffer in a Liberal minister's office under a Liberal government, and you guys did nothing. You didn't support her and you didn't back her. You set a precedent that is going to take years to repair, where people can no longer feel safe in coming forward. I've had people contact my office saying that although they've been Liberal voters most of their life, it is an issue that you keep coming in here trying somehow to get a scalp from us when it all happened on your watch, in one of your Liberal minister's offices, with your staff. Yet you come in here and try and somehow blame us. That's atrocious. If people can't keep a confidence in this job, there is a problem.

On Insiders it came out that a couple of your people have kept a confidence, too. I think the moral standard on that side has gone below the gutter. If I could think of a word that meant below the gutter, I would use it, but I can't. (Time expired)