PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here with Matt Smith, the member for Leichhardt, as part of our united Labor team. We come here to Parliament every week, united to deliver for the Australian people. And what we are seeing on the other side is pretty clearly divided to the point of destructive from the Coalition. But we here on the Labor side, myself, Matt, the whole Labor team; united to deliver. And that is exactly what we are doing.
Since parliament last sat, we have seen the Prime Minister travel to the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, focused on Australian jobs. Delivering the support and trade that Australia relies upon to support jobs across this country.
We have delivered on our commitment to 5% deposits for first home buyers. Supporting first home buyers to get into a home of their own. That will make a huge difference to tens of thousands of Australians as they work to get themselves into the property market and have that security of their own home.
We have seen the outline of when people will start to see their student debt slashed by 20 per cent - a key commitment from the election this year. Slashing student debt by 20 per cent, and people will start to see that come off their student debt when they log in in November.
And we have seen significant delivery when it comes to Labor's commitment to making sure we have responsible budget management. And we saw that with the Final Budget Outcome announced by the Treasurer and the Finance Minister. And that saw the biggest turnaround of a federal budget in any single parliamentary term in Australia's history, taking a Coalition deficit of $47 billion down to just $10 billion.
Significant delivery. Things that make a real difference for the day to day lives of the Australian people, including on that 5% home deposits.
Now that is what Labor has been doing for the last month.
When it comes to what the Coalition have been doing for the last month, we have seen the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, lose not one, but two frontbenchers in just a single month. One resigned while in Western Australia. The other one is from Western Australia and has also resigned.
We have seen the Liberal Party argue and argue over net zero. This is the Liberal Party, which was the party of Tony Abbott, who said that climate change was, quote, 'crap.' This is the party who knifed Malcolm Turnbull, not once, but twice, over climate policy. This is the party who, under Scott Morrison, was ridiculed on the global stage, and the party who, under Sussan Ley's deputy leadership, only plan to act on climate change was to spend $600 billion of taxpayers' money on nuclear reactors.
But don't worry, we now see a report saying that the Coalition is inching towards a deal to keep the party together on climate change. Well, I think we will wait to see how that plays out, but we know how this story has gone in the past.
And then when it gets to all of the instability at the top rank of the Liberal Party and the National Party, what we are seeing is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party say, quote, 'it's a bit messy.' That's Ted O'Brien. Now, when Ted O'Brien, who was the architect of the $600 billion nuclear plan, says that something is, quote, 'a bit messy,' you know, you are in serious trouble. We then have an extraordinary revelation from the most secure parts of the Liberal Party headquarters in their campaign review, we have this revelation that Peter Dutton, the former leader, said of Andrew Hastie, the former Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, that Mr. Hastie had, quote, 'gone on strike.' Now I am all for Andrew Hastie's right to disconnect, but what we are seeing here is a report that Mr. Dutton said that Mr. Hastie was absent, scared to do media, or lazy. This is the person who thinks that maybe he would be a better leader of the Liberal Party.
So the revelations about this relationship and relationships in Liberal Party keep coming thick and fast at the moment. We have got Niki Savva writing in The Age today telling us quote, 'Andrew Hastie's relationship with Peter Dutton had been on life support for more than 18 months.' And again, there's that word 'lazy.' Dutton thought he was lazy.
But it does not stop there. In the great newspaper, The West Australian, which I read every morning, we have got a report that Hastie won't rule out a tilt at the leadership. Andrew Hastie will not rule out a tilt at the leadership, giving great comfort, I am sure, to all of his former shadow frontbench colleagues. Katina Curtis writes in The West Australian quote, 'Hastie has effectively set himself up as the shadow Opposition Leader.' Again, great comfort, I am sure, to all in the Liberal Party that this is definitely not over.
But I thought actually, I have got to give the National Party credit for this one. That to have David Littleproud out there saying, quote, 'needs to do better.' Now you don't have to have been in this building particularly long to remember that it was David Littleproud who was trying to blow up the Coalition just a few months ago. To have David Littleproud out saying that the Liberal Party needs to do better tells you everything about how low the standards are in the Coalition right now, what an absolute mess it is behind the scenes, how divided and dysfunctional they are, and how much better the Australian people deserve from this absolute rabble.
The Australian people deserve so much better. They deserve a government that is focused on delivery. They deserve an opposition who is focused on policy. At the moment, they are entirely focused on personality. On the Labor side, we will continue to focus on delivering for the Australian people. Continue to focus on delivering the things we said we would do at the election, cutting student debt, helping people get into their first home, and securing Australia's interests and supporting our friends on the world stage, and to talk more about that now, I will pass over to Matt.
MATT SMITH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Thank you, Patrick, are these microphones high enough? It's always worth checking. My name is Matt Smith. I'm the Federal member for Leichhardt, commenting today on our historic defence agreement with Papua New Guinea.
This is a really exciting development, particularly for my part of the world. For those of you that don't know, Leichhardt starts in Cairns, but goes right up the Cape and includes the Torres Strait, particularly Saibai Island. Now you could swim from Saibai to PNG. You wouldn't because you'd get eaten by something, but you could do it. And what we've got there is a lot of family connections, friendship connections, from Saibai to Daru to Mabudawan.
We were up on Saibai Island on Friday, a shaving ceremony was taking place, which is the transition from a young man into a full man, an adult. Family members had come across from Mabudawan. They had come across from Daru. They were spending time together on Saibai.
The deep connections between the far north and Papua New Guinea are very, very real, and this treaty, all it does is solidify our existing relationship with PNG.
I'm so happy to be a part of a government, to be working with a Prime Minister who takes PNG as the friends that they are. In the far north, PNG and Cairns, the Torres Strait Islands work hand in hand, work in lockstep. And now we can say that about the entire nation. The relationship that the Prime Minister of PNG and Albo have created mirrors what we have up north. And it is a fantastic opportunity for PNG nationals. It's a fantastic development for Australia, and shows how deep and real our friendship is with our closest and northernmost neighbours. Thank you.
GORMAN: Hear, hear.
SMITH: Oh, it's also my mother's birthday. So happy birthday, Mum.
GORMAN: Happy birthday to Matt's mum.