Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:32): Oh my goodness! The Luddites have taken over the asylum here! The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will return to the question! The minister is warned: abuse at this dispatch box will not be tolerated. Mr SHORTEN: If you go through the flat-earth theory we just heard, we should never do any infrastructure work in this country because, under the opposition's simplistic understanding of asbestos, we just leave it there and never tackle the issue. Mr Pyne: Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister was asked: given the information he had from 2009, what advice did he give the government as a cabinet minister about the National Broadband Network, which was about to do exactly what he had been warned against doing two years previously? It is not a— The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. Mr SHORTEN: I appreciate the Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Reps promoting me from parl. sec. to cabinet in 2009. But in terms of what goes on— Opposition members interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: But in terms of the issues, I appreciate a question from the opposition on health and safety, and I particularly appreciate it on asbestos from the Leader of the Opposition. The historians in this chamber and listening may be interested to know that until this week the Leader of the Opposition has never raised a question on asbestos in the parliament. But I can say that, when it comes to dealing with asbestos, we take the advice of our regulators. We are the ones who have created a national agency. We are the ones who have done a national plan. This is in stark contrast to what happens when the coalition get power. We all know what happens then: it is reported today in Fairfax that the then minister for workplace relations, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, rejected a plan to speed up asbestos compensation. Strike 1, 2001! Then we have a situation when there was a proposition about putting in a drug which would support asbestos victims in their suffering— Mr Hockey: How is this relevant, Madam Speaker? Mr Dutton: Relevance! Mr SHORTEN: They know where this is going, don't they? The SPEAKER: The minister will return to the question— Mr SHORTEN: The opposition leader, when he was in— Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will return to the question! Mr SHORTEN: The opposition leader, when he was in power, would not deal with helping and easing the suffering of asbestos victims. And when Bernie Banton— (Time expired)