Senator BACK (Western Australia) (17:05): I just cannot thank Senator Moore enough for the opportunity to draw attention and put the spotlight on the absolutely impoverished government that was the Labor government of the last six years. The interesting thing to reflect upon is that there were three prime ministers in that time—Mr Rudd followed by Ms Gillard followed by Mr Rudd. Two of the prime ministers were actually gotten rid of by Labor's own caucus. They did not even give the Australian people the opportunity to get rid of them; they just waited until 2013 to do that—so hypocrisy writ large. When you think of Kevin Rudd, what comes to mind? You think of pink batts and the terrible loss of four lives, and you think of billions of dollars. You think, of course, of the $900 and the $1, 200 cheques that were thrown around like confetti. When you think of Ms Gillard, you think immediately of failed memorial halls, many of which are falling down now—another $13 billion of taxpayers' money. Then you have the quinella—the Wayne Swan and Senator Penny Wong quinella, the worst Treasurer and finance minister combination in Australia's history who took a surplus of $22 billion and turned it into a massive debt who took an economy that had no net debt and created $200 billion of accumulated deficits who managed to put us in a position where we are borrowing a billion dollars a month. That is two new primary schools a day, seven days a week. What a wonderful opportunity Senator Moore has given us! Let me go on. We now think of Mr Shorten. As Minister for Workplace Relations he destroyed Australian jobs and watched unemployment go up as a result of his bad industrial laws. We think of Senator Ludwig, who, with no compassion and no thought, trashed not just Australia's international reputation but the live cattle industry—from which we are yet to recover. Senator Conroy interjecting— Senator BACK: And then—right on cue, thank you very much—comes Senator Conroy with his failed NBN scheme that of course did not need to go to tender! Certainly in many instances he did not bother going to tender. Then there was Australia's overseas media operation, which is a fair dinkum disgrace, incidentally—Bananas in Pyjamas! Senator Conroy, having set up a tender, interfered in the process. He reversed the tender result and gave it to the ABC—and we know what the end result was. Why would Senator Moore give us this opportunity? Here we have a past Labor government that operated with the best terms of trade in Australia's history yet managed to run successive deficits. Spend, spend, spend—the whole time. Let me come to this question about the promises of this— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Back, resume your seat. Senators, I remind you that interjections are disorderly. Senator Bilyk interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Bilyk! I remind you that interjections are disorderly. If you are going to make them, they might be a little more interesting at least. Senator BACK: The clock needs to be extended, Mr Acting Deputy President. I will explain to Senator Bilyk afterwards what the significance of my 'Bananas in Pyjamas' comment was—I watched them on television in Singapore recently. Let us have a look at what we came into government to do. We said we would get rid of the shocking mining tax—a tax that was earning no income. We did it. We said we would get rid of the carbon tax and return money to Australian consumers and return confidence to the Australian electricity system. We have done it. We said that we would turn the boats around and take control of our borders again. We have done it. We said we would repair the budget—and who is standing on the hose of that process? The question becomes one of how this government is performing. Let me spell it out. We have reduced that shocking projected debt, moving to $600 billion, by $300 billion. With infrastructure, we have committed $50 billion which will leverage up to $125 billion. We are already seeing it around Australia—something Labor was never capable of doing. On the state reforms and asset recycling, which were the first two territories or states to put their hands up for this asset recycling? The Labor led ACT and the Labor led South Australian governments. Isn't that amazing! We have privatised Medibank Private to put those funds back into working for the Australian community. We have got rid of 57,000 pages of red tape, with a saving of $2 billion a year. With Mr Andrew Robb, who is back on a plane now, incidentally, we have managed to put together three free trade agreements with three of our most important trading partners. A trillion dollars of environmental approvals, some 300 major projects, are all now underway. Last time around, Labor could not do it. We have reintroduced an employee share scheme to operate from 1 July—once again giving employees in businesses in this country the opportunity to share even further in the benefits. We have removed 100 Labor tax measures that went back to 2002. So where are we are now in terms of business confidence? Business confidence and consumer confidence are back at their long-term averages. Retail trade is going upwards. Housing approvals are the best in 10 years. Where are the barnacles? If there are barnacles, who contaminated the waters? Who roughened the hull of this ship called 'Australia'? This mob on the other side did it. We are in a situation now where our terms of trade have deteriorated relative to the terms of trade experienced by the former government. Can you imagine for a minute if this crowd were let back in charge of the purse strings? It would be a catastrophe. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! The time for the discussion has expired.