Senate debates

Thursday, 12 February 2009

Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 [No. 2]; Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Bill (No. 2) 2008-2009 [No. 2]; Household Stimulus Package Bill (No. 2) 2009; Tax Bonus for Working Australians Bill (No. 2) 2009; Tax Bonus for Working Australians (Consequential Amendments) Bill (No. 2) 2009; Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Amendment Bill 2009 [No. 2]

In Committee

11:39 am

Photo of Bob BrownBob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think the honourable senator would like me to go back to Tasmania. I will, and I will have a smile on my face after what has happened today. There are seven of us on the crossbench. The outcome here is somewhere between $½ billion and $1 billion extra for Australian communities, with a social justice outcome, a jobs outcome and an environmental outcome. I am not going to go back through the package, but this has been a great team effort. Let me say that the government facilitated this. Through the collective nous in the Senate we have been able to give Australia a much better outcome, while the opposition were totally sidelined. That is their problem. They are irrelevant to this process. They have become the blockers of even urgent economy policy that the government wants to implement. That is their problem. We are able to celebrate an enhanced win here. We are able to feel—

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