Senator COLBECK (Tasmania) (15:17): We see from the opposition a complete failure of leadership. All they can do is throw slurs backwards and forwards across the chamber. That's what the Labor Party, particularly Senator Watt, has been reduced to: not really interested in doing anything other than casting aspersions on other members of the parliament, regardless of their considerable contributions to the Australian people. If you look at the achievements of the Australian government since we were elected in 2013 but particularly since the election in 2016, you'll find that this government has delivered and continues to deliver for the Australian people. Over one million Australians are in new jobs since we came to government in 2013. Strong economic management and leadership, despite all the other circumstances we've had to manage over the last five years, have put us in a strong position economically, where the Australian economy has created over one million jobs, 770,000 of which were created since September 2015 and 339,000 in the last 12 months. It's one of the best periods of jobs growth on record. In my patch, where jobs are important, that sort of economic leadership makes a difference. During the Braddon by-election campaign, in which I participated quite closely, over a period of three weeks 800 new jobs were announced, which shows that there is business and economic confidence in the community. The biggest threat to that is the complete failure of leadership from the Labor Party. They no longer believe the things that they believed while in government. I watched Bill Shorten on a polling booth. He stood there for 30 minutes and nobody wanted to talk to him. He spoke to three people in 30 minutes— Senator Carol Brown: That's not true— Senator COLBECK: You weren't there, Senator; I was. Three people spoke to him in 30 minutes. In fact, one of them turned around and abused him as she walked away. She wasn't impressed with Mr Shorten. While Mr Turnbull was walking with us through the streets of Ulverstone, taking selfies and welcoming people outside their stores, Mr Shorten was sitting on his own outside Banjo's in the mall in Devonport. Nobody wanted to talk to him. The business community in Devonport spoke with their feet—in fact, with their wallets. When the Devonport Chamber of Commerce invited businesses to come and speak to Mr Shorten—with three weeks notice of when Mr Shorten was coming to Devonport for a business lunch—15 people signed up. The Devonport Chamber of Commerce even warned the Labor Party a week and a half out that they had only 15 people who wanted to come and see him. They did nothing about it. The function was downgraded to the downstairs unit as a working lunch over sandwiches. The Labor Party, obviously, did a bit of a ring around the night before and they got it back to 30, which was the benchmark to move back upstairs into the restaurant. A similar event for the Prime Minister was sold out in 24 hours. People came in to speak to the Prime Minister to understand our policies. Senator Chisholm interjecting— Senator COLBECK: What happened at the by-election? Effectively a zero swing. It's a very different circumstance to Queensland. But I can tell you there is no interest in Mr Shorten, and that's because he no longer believes the things he said in government. He will not repeat the statements that he made in government. He used to believe in tax cuts for business. He doesn't now. He used to believe in a whole range of things that would benefit the Australian economy, but now, for purely crass political purposes, he just walks away from that. He has sold out. He doesn't believe in workers, he doesn't believe in growth of the economy and he doesn't believe in the things that will make a difference. All he's interested in is cheap, nasty political pointscoring. That's all he's interested in. He's like Senator Watt. That's all he's interested in doing—nothing constructive, just cheap, nasty political pointscoring, like Senator Watt. Unfortunately, Senator Watt gets a bit tetchy about these things but that's the life of this place. We have a record of delivering for the Australian people, much unlike the ALP.