Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the honourable member opposite. We have just spent an hour and a half talking about where this debate should happen. It is just mind blowing.

I follow the member for Watson. He and I attended the same school. He was a year ahead of me. Our paths parted at that point. The member for Watson went to study at university. I am sure he got involved in student politics and unions. He went to the state parliament of New South Wales and then ended up here. I, through university, worked in my family's business, the third generation of my family to do so. Upon completing that degree, I started work full time and had 23 years working for my father. The Prime Minister last night said something that really captured my heart in a speech he gave to the Business Council of Australia. He challenged the business community to not sit in the grandstand, to not stay in the armchair but to engage in the debate.

There has been a lot said this week about mature and sensible debate. I have had 14 months here, and I am sad to say that I think that that is a political oxymoron. The Prime Minister this week has raised issues of our Federation—and I will talk about this later. We stand at a crossroads as a country. When I was sitting in my family's business, life made sense, and what the Prime Minister said last night encapsulates my motivation to be here. Unlike the member for Watson and all those opposite, sitting on this side of the House we have doctors, lawyers, farmers, vets, teachers—people who were in the front lines before they came here, people who have grappled with all that red tape.

I rise to talk against the amendment and to support the original bill, the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2014) Bill. I would like to thank the Prime Minister, first and foremost, for having the foresight to take this into his portfolio and to put in charge my good friend the member for Kooyong. By running this out of the Prime Minister's own portfolio, he dictated to our side how serious he was about attacking this problem, this most burdensome of problems, that chokes business at every turn. The member for Kooyong did me the great honour of coming to me very early upon my election, knowing that I came from a business background, and asking would I give him a hand. And I was humbled to do so.

The member for Kooyong has worked tirelessly, not just on the first repeal day but on this second repeal day. This is not the start of things; this is the continuation of a journey that this government will not turn its back on and that we will not make fun of. I understand—having been in business and having faced not just federal government but all three levels, which I will talk about later—what this looks like and what hurdles you have to jump through as a result.

I sat here for an hour and 35 minutes and watched those opposite laugh, interject and belittle every business operator in Australia, and treat them with disdain. And I say: shame on you. We are not only delivering—

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