Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank goodness you're here, Chair; this is really putting me off! But what actually happened was that no-one wanted to pay the other five per cent—the mess we got left from that side over there. So the grown-ups got in the room, and the minister in Western Australia, Minister Tony Buti, and Minister Clare here in the grown-up government in Canberra got together and nutted out an agreement. The feds agreed to continue their 75 per cent, plus 2½ per cent. The states shook hands and said the states would pick up the other 2½ per cent. I don't know, Senator Allman-Payne, your background—I know you were a teacher—but I actually had my own small business, and I've been around a little bit in my one industry. Half of the successes that we have are when you actually sit down like grown-ups and you negotiate. Instead, we have seen state ministers throwing their dummies out of the cot because they don't want to pay their half of the five per cent or to negotiate. It is all very well to kick and scream and carrying on. What is wrong with grown-ups coming to a negotiation?

When all is said and done, I have a different view of the world from the Greens because of my business background and my working class background. My wife and I had a trucking business. When we wrote a cheque and made the decision that we were going to invest in a new truck or put in a gearbox, we actually paid with our own money. So we get that. We understand that when you start talking about dollars they've got to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, the Greens have not been in the real world—most of them. I'll take that back because Senator Whish-Wilson has got a fantastic background, and he's done a bit. The rest don't come from the real world. You've never had to do anything with your own money in a business. If you ever knew how to run a business—