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Thursday, 1 March 2012
Page: 1453

Senator POLLEY (Tasmania—Deputy Government Whip in the Senate) (17:57): Here we go again. Once again there is no policy, no plan, no anything. Why do the coalition continue to embarrass themselves? In fairness—and I always try to be fair—the coalition does have a plan and their plan is to say 'no' to everything, unless, of course, it reeks of looking after their rich mates. That is what they do, such as with the mining companies who are booming along but whose profits need to be bigger. Why would those opposite worry about the country's future when it is more important to worry about their mates, like the big polluters in Australia, or provide paid parental leave for the rich end of town.

Let us look at what we are doing. The Howard government sat on their hands year after year and were only concerned about pork barrelling and about storing up a war chest that they took to each election to wedge the country and to buy their way back into government. I have always had the notion that a government governs for all Australians. The last thing Australia needs is an Abbott-led federal government. He would take us back to the Stone Age. We, the Gillard Labor government, are making the hard decisions now, giving working people a fair share of the resources boom and getting our nation ready for the future by building the new Australian economy. We are managing the economy for working people, fighting for their jobs as we did during the global financial crisis and now in the manufacturing and auto industries. Labor's response to the global financial crisis saved jobs and avoided recessions.

We know what those people on the other side wanted us to do. They wanted us to sit back and sit on our hands. They wanted us to put our heads in the sand and just wait and see. How many times in this chamber did those opposite come in and say: 'Look, you're rushing in. Don't do anything.' We know, as the Australian people know, that the investments that were made to keep the economy strong, to stimulate jobs, to build education have paid off. The Australian people know that. It does not matter how many times those opposite come in and try to rewrite history. We can talk about aged care or health and the $1 billion that Tony Abbott as health minister ripped out of health. We on this side of the chamber know what they did for 11 long years, we know they avoided the very tough decisions. But we are going to help the older community to make that transition into retirement.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Ludlam ): Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired.