Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The government has reached an agreement with the states to set an objective—because we're serious about reform, Senator Reynolds. We're not sitting on our hands like the previous government did, just watching this all go past us. We are determined to seize the nettle of reform here and do what it is in the public interest and in the interest of the scheme operating, in the coming decades, for Australians who are participating in the scheme and for the Australians who haven't come along yet. That is what we are determined to do, and I think characterising it as cuts at the very best lacks a sense of seriousness about the task that is in front of us.