Senator SMITH (Western Australia) (15:16): Let me begin with some congratulations. This is a very positive sign that we can look towards for 2015. At last, the Labor opposition have brought to the Senate during question time some issues worthy of debate. Congratulations. You will not be surprised to hear that senators on this side have a different point of view. You will not be surprised to hear that senators on this side reflect some of the attitudes across the Australian community. But, before I talk about the disgraceful episode that was Labor's period of governance in Indigenous affairs, before I talk about what happened to education, before I talk about what happened to employment, before I talk about what the Australian National Audit Office, the independent auditor, had to say in 2012 about Labor's performance, let us put it in context. Labor want you to believe that on Sunday, 8 September 2013 the world changed. Labor want you to believe that everything that happened before Sunday, 8 September 2013 no longer matters. They want their legacy purged from your memory. They do not want you to be reminded about the economic vandalism. They do not want you to be reminded about the poor policy, matched only by poor implementation. They do not want you to know that much of what the government is facing now is inherited and caused by the inaction or poor action of the previous government. Nothing demonstrates the romanticism, the revisionism, of Labor more than the comments of Bill Shorten this morning. What did Bill Shorten say this morning? He said, 'Today is the anniversary of the election of the Whitlam government.' What anniversary did he not reflect on? He did not reflect on the fact that it is also the anniversary of the election of Mark Latham, when Mark Latham beat Kim Beazley by one vote in the Labor caucus room. Why doesn't Labor want you to talk about or hear about Mark Latham? Senator Gallacher: What has this got to do with the debate we're having now? Senator SMITH: Context is very important, Senator Gallacher. This goes to a very, very important issue. Nothing that is happening at the moment, none of the decisions the government take, is happening in isolation. It is happening under the umbrella of the poor management of the previous Labor government. So why do they not want you to hear about Mark Latham? Because this is what Mark Latham had to say about Labor on 28 August this year: Shorten failed to support the push for rank-and-file participation: breaking down factional control and the inexorable march of dud union officials into upper house seats. He can't afford to be missing in action again. After all, if he won't stand up for good governance inside his own party, how can he govern the country? If Bill Shorten does not stand up for good governance in his own party, how can he stand up for good governance in the country? This is the important part: Shorten needs to prove to voters he's tough enough to run tight fiscal and border protection strategies. We are dealing today with a very important issue, and that is how we progress Indigenous advantage in our community. We cannot do that without addressing some of the appalling legacy left to us by the former Labor government. I want to turn briefly to Labor's record in Indigenous affairs. This is a personal point of view. I think that disagreement about how we approach Indigenous issues in our country is good, because it means we get better ideas. It means we get a better approach. We need more contestability in how we approach Indigenous issues in our country, much more contestability. So what do we know about Labor's record when it comes to Indigenous affairs? Let us look at school attendance. Then I will turn to employment and then I will turn to the comments of the Australian National Audit Office. Under Labor, school attendance in remote communities was appalling. In many cases, children were not even attending school 50 per cent of the time. We know we need good education to make sure that the cycle of welfare dependency is broken. What did the Australian National Audit Office say? The Australian National Audit Office said— (Time expired)