Ms GILLARD (Prime Minister) (3:50 PM) —We have been through a dreadful summer, a summer where Australians have turned to each other, a summer where Australians have shown that they want to look after each other. Australians have acted to help each other. Australians are now looking to this parliament to give them the leadership the nation deserves at this time. Australians know that the nation needs to rebuild from the devastating summer that was. When Australians turn to this parliament they do not expect to see this tragedy being used for cheap politicking. They do not expect to see this parliament degenerate into a rabble around what needs to be done to rebuild the nation. Instead, they expect decisions to be made and action to be taken, and as Prime Minister I am going to do just that.

That is why I have outlined a $5.6 billion funding package. That is why I have outlined plans to start the rebuilding now. That is why we are prepared to make a $2 billion payment available to Queensland. That is why we have set in place measures to make sure value for money is obtained, including a reconstruction inspectorate, including audited accounts, including a national partnership arrangement and including the involvement of people like Mr John Fahey and Mr Brad Orgill. We want to get on with the job of rebuilding the nation. That is what the national interest requires. And the national interest requires this burden to be shared. Yes, the government have to make room for it in their budget—and we have. We have done it through making some tough and difficult decisions. We have done it through reprioritising infrastructure to deal with questions of capacity constraints. We have done it by making sure we streamline the skilled migration we may need to build the nation. We have done it by making the decisions necessary to get unemployed people to step up to the jobs they can get in rebuilding the nation. We have put together a comprehensive package and, yes, it includes asking Australians for a contribution too. That is the right thing to do at a time when the nation needs it. At every point we have been motivated by the national interest.

Unfortunately, what we have seen on every occasion from the Leader of the Opposition is the national interest cast aside in pursuit of narrow political interests. At a time when Australians were turning to each other, urging each other to dig deeper for flood victims, the Leader of the Opposition was out there asking them to dig deeper to fund the Liberal Party. The Leader of the Opposition is very keen to throw insults around; let me say this: I have never seen such a tin heart. Of course, the Leader of the Opposition may have been let down by his party organisation, but what he needed to then do was say they had done the wrong thing. But he was asked by Barrie Cassidy:

the fundraising request—

And the Leader of the Opposition replied:

Never a truer word was spoken. People will make their own judgments on a man who did not condemn fundraising for the Liberal Party when the nation was turning to fundraising for flood victims.

On the question of the national interest versus narrow political interest, what we have seen on each and every occasion is the Leader of the Opposition out there seeking to pursue narrow political interest. Did you hear his speech at the Gold Coast to a group of Young Liberals, when the nation was still reeling from the shock of these natural disasters, before we were even touched by the cyclone and there was more devastation to come, when the people of Queensland and Brisbane were looking at their houses filled with filthy floodwaters and wondering how they were ever going to clean up? There was the Leader of the Opposition on the Gold Coast in front of the Liberal Party faithful, trying to work out how he could surf these floodwaters into Kirribilli. That was the main thing on his mind—all about his political interest. Could he use this somehow to put pressure on the Independents to make a different decision about the composition of the government? It is narrow political interest every step of the way.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: people would take him more seriously if the narrow political interest had also not been on display in putting together his so-called alternative package. When we laboured over the $5.6 billion funding package, we laboured in the interests of the nation. The Leader of the Opposition and his team laboured over the reports of focus groups to help them work out what was in their political interest, as reported in the newspaper. Were they studying documents to work out the national interest or studying documents to work out his political interest? We all know the answer to that.

Let’s just go through the hypocrisy that is driving the Leader of the Opposition’s campaign. He is not opposed to tax. He was a member of a government whose tax as a share of GDP was as follows. The tax to GDP figure of the Howard government when they left office was 23.5 per cent.

Dr Emerson —A record.

Ms GILLARD —This is a man who is not opposed to tax. Someone just said it was a record; actually, it was not the Howard government’s record, I dread to correct. Actually, the Howard government record was at 24.1 per cent. This is a man not opposed to tax. Currently, tax as a share of GDP is 20.9 per cent. This is a man not opposed to tax. The Leader of the Opposition is out there saying he cannot support the levy because he does not like burdens and he worries about all of this. That was his track record on tax when he was in government.

What is his track record on supporting levies? The most remarkable thing—or probably not the most remarkable; one of the most remarkable things—about the few weeks that have been is that, before I was talking about a levy, it was supported by members of the coalition. Senator Joyce and Senator Ron Boswell were out there supporting levies. As soon as I announced the levy, the coalition was opposed to it. What does that tell you? That is telling you it is all about them working out the politics, not working out the nation’s interest. When the Leader of the Opposition was in government, he was very, very pleased to support levies. He gave the superannuation surcharge levy the tick. He gave the gun buyback levy the tick, though someone on $60,000 paying that levy in 1996-97 was being asked for a bigger dollar contribution than we are asking them for today. Have a think about that—a bigger dollar contribution than we are asking them for today, but he gave that one the tick. He gave the stevedoring levy a tick, the milk levy a tick, the sugar levy a tick, the Ansett Airlines levy a tick and the proposed East Timor levy a tick. Indeed, he was so fond of levies that he went to the last election promising a $6 billion levy to fund his election promises.

Now, of course, he comes into this parliament and says he could not contemplate a levy to rebuild the nation. What hypocrisy is this? It was good enough for the Leader of the Opposition to propose a levy to fund his election promises but it is not good enough for him to support a levy to rebuild the nation. It is all about the political interest, not about the national interest—not at any point.

Then the Leader of the Opposition says, ‘Savings should be made on the budget.’ Savings have been made on the budget—hard savings; proper savings; properly costed savings. The Leader of the Opposition never understands that because he has never made a hard saving or a properly costed saving. We know one of the single biggest reasons he is sitting in the chair of the Leader of the Opposition is that, when he was called on to deal with financial questions during the election campaign, he created an $11 billion black hole. This is his track record when it comes to financial management questions: no expertise; no track record; no idea.

So, against this backdrop, you would have thought the Leader of the Opposition might have thought to himself, ‘It can be a bit hard to do all of this—work the budget out.’ But, no, he was out there on 27 January saying, ‘It’s easy enough to find savings; it’s easy enough.’ Then there were days and days and days and days of delay. What finally came out of the process, quickly cobbled together, with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition desperately fighting back against cutbacks she did not agree with? What has come out is a package that does not stand up to any scrutiny.

Let us just go through it. It delays funding under the BER. They want tradespeople to walk off half-completed jobs in schools. I say to that: give us the list. Let us know which schools. You should do that if you are a decent person. They, of course, have succumbed to an email campaign. So desperate were they for savings that someone scrabbled through their deleted emails and found a campaign about cutting $500 million to Indonesian schools, and they all looked at each other in their desperation and division and said: ‘That’ll be good enough. Why don’t we whack that in there?’ But no-one bothered to tell the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. She knows this is wrong, she knows this is against the national interest and she should be saying it loud and long.

Then, of course, they said they are going to cut back water entitlement purchasing through the Murray-Darling Basin. What an act of contempt for the people of Adelaide! What an act of contempt to say that they are not worth the reform that the Murray-Darling Basin requires! The Leader of the Opposition has never found a good day to buy back water entitlements. When the river is in drought, no, you cannot buy them then, because the river is in drought. When the river is in flood, you cannot buy them then. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: if we are going to do this long-term reform, we need to buy back water entitlements. He should not treat the people of Adelaide with this kind of contempt.

Then, of course, there are GP superclinics. The Leader of the Opposition has never found a healthcare cutback he did not love, so we are not surprised that is on the list. Then he wants to rip money off disadvantaged schools around the country. There’s a smart one: get the most impoverished kids with the fewest life opportunities in the nation and make sure they continue to have the fewest life opportunities in the nation! What an offensive suggestion from a man who was a member of a government that never bothered to do anything about disadvantage in schools! Of course, this list of shabby opportunism just goes on. It does not add up. It does not make sense.

Honourable members interjecting—

Ms GILLARD —I say to the Leader of the Opposition that he has the ability to show that he can rise above the persona that he has developed so far. He has the ability to show he can rise above the three-word slogans. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: now is the time to put down the polling. Now is the time to cut out the scare campaign. Now is the time to toss away the lines document his advisers have given him and do something in the national interest, and that is to support the government in rebuilding the nation, including the levy. That is the right thing to do. It is what people are looking at this parliament to do.

Honourable members interjecting—

Ms GILLARD —This levy is responsible, it is fair, it is temporary, it is in the national interest and I support it. I believe the Australian people will understand why we are asking them to make this contribution. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that he should support it too. He has no alternative. He has no credibility. His own frontbench do not agree with the figures he put out earlier this week. In those circumstances, it is time for the Leader of the Opposition to say: ‘I made an error on this one, I am a man capable of acknowledging that and I will support the federal government’s levy. I will support rebuilding the nation.’ That is the right thing to do. It is what Australians are looking for. Do not go mining for the political interest; act in the national interests. Australians are better than the Leader of the Opposition thinks. They will support this levy—it is the right thing to do—and so should he. (Time expired)

Honourable members interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. Peter Slipper)—Before calling the honourable member for Flinders, I remind honourable members that they are not supposed to interject from their seats.