Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (17:19): Wow! What was that? I've never heard anything so extraordinary, not even from this lot previously. We've had fake crocodile tears all week in this place around superannuation. They're going to go to war for anyone who has $3-plus million in their superannuation. They're going to fight for those people. Senator Hughes interjecting— Senator POLLEY: Yes, they have been successful, but they need the opposition to keep fighting day in, day out for them because they've got it so tough. What about the majority of Australians, who don't have $3-plus million in their superannuation? I'm all for people paying their fair share, but I do want to take the—I was going to say 'good senator' but I'm probably exaggerating there!—contribution of the senator before, Senator Hughes. Again, she was in here talking about her poor performance when it comes to the Premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews. I can remember her crying, from the rafters almost, about how Mr Andrews was going to get voted out of parliament. His government was gone because he locked everyone up during COVID. Senator Ciccone: What happened? Senator POLLEY: That's a very good question. He was re-elected with a bigger majority. Why did he get re-elected? Because he did his job and he kept Victorians safe. On the other hand, the Prime Minister—what was his name? Mr Scott Morrison; he was Prime Minister. He wasn't actually doing his job very well, but he thought: 'I can do more than being a hopeless, corrupt Prime Minister. I can also be a minister for everything!' So he took over— Senator Scarr: A point of order: there was a term which Senator Polley used then in referring to a member of the lower house. I'm sure, now that it has been brought to her attention, she will withdraw. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Van ): Would you like to withdraw your comment? Senator POLLEY: I'm happy to withdraw the comment. But I will keep talking about the former Prime Minister, who was in fact not satisfied with being able to demonstrate a complete lack of good management as the Prime Minister. He governed over a dysfunctional government. He was so concerned about his own ministers that, in fact, he decided that he should take on more responsibilities. Can I seek clarification through the chair: I thought I had 15 minutes on the clock. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: We have a hard marker at 5.30. Senator POLLEY: Okay. Well I better be quick then because I want to get on the record the stark contrast between the former Prime Minister, who was the leader of a dysfunctional, rorting—people may not like to accept that it was a corrupt government, but the reality is that that's how it's going to be remembered. That's how it will be recorded in history. I think we also have to put a few other things on the record. The former senator was saying that we have no agenda and we've broken every election promise that we took to the election, which is untrue. It is the government of today that wants to invest $10 billion into the Housing Australia Future Fund. That fund will ensure that there is access to affordable housing in this country, which is so desperately needed. It's needed for women and mothers with their children trying to leave and escape from domestic violence. We don't just talk about it; we've come into government and we're doing that. We've also already legislated for 10 days paid leave for people that have found themselves in those circumstances and need to flee, because you can't leave a domestic violence situation without having somewhere to go. People can come into this chamber and champion this, but the reality is you have to actually deliver, and that's what this government is doing. We've highlighted, over and over again, the waste and mismanagement of the former government. They had nine years in government, and what did they do with it when it comes to energy policy? They were very creative—they were—because they had 22 policies. They had 22 different policies in relation to energy. How many were actually implemented? Senator Ciccone: How many? Senator POLLEY: Not one. Not two. Not 10. Not 22. Not even one. There were zero. They did nothing. So we have senators coming in here wanting to rewrite history and not tell the truth when it comes to what this government has already achieved. I'd like to run through a few things to remind people of the reality of how bad the opposition were when they were in government. They were so bad at dealing with aged care and the aged-care crisis in this country that they had to call a royal commission into their own failings. That's what they had to do. We had the senator who misled this chamber and repeatedly misled the Australian people. We have a plan. We've already announced that we want to see nurses back in every residential aged-care home in this country. We know that's not going to happen overnight. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Polley, I ask you not to reflect on members of this place, please. You said that the senator lied to this place. I ask you to withdraw that. Senator POLLEY: I withdraw that. The reality is that senators come in here and, as in the previous contribution that was made today, accuse us of not delivering on our election commitments when it comes to aged care and nurses in residential homes. As I was saying, they were so bad through all the years that they were in government that a crisis was confronting us in aged care. It was not only the quality of care, not only the abuse that was happening in the residential aged-care homes, but the lack of recruitment and the inability to retain staff because they were being paid some of the lowest wages in this country. Coincidentally, it happens to be predominantly women who work in aged care. We know that those opposite will not do anything to help anyone who works in the caring economy. Just as they abandoned people who work in aged care and they abandoned the senior citizens of this country, they have done exactly the same when it comes to child care and early education. They have failed over and over again. In this government we've actually changed the way that we view aged care. During the election campaign the now Prime Minister made a commitment, which he has already delivered on. We are in the process of implementing all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. We are leading the way in restoring the confidence of the Australian people in their government. After nine years—almost 10—the respect of the Australian people was no longer there, because they were sick and tired of having a government that was only interested in using the government benches to look after its mates. The government was rorting and mismanaging the economy. It was not looking after the people it was elected to represent. We've implemented so many of the things that we want to do. I heard the good senator talking about manufacturing and making the allegation that we're not really interested in manufacturing. We were not in government when we saw company after company, industry after industry, leaving this country, taking their goods and going offshore. And what did the former government do? Nothing. What did they do they about skills? What did they do to keep people in TAFE so that we have skills for the future? Nothing; we don't. They haven't done anything. All they did was rubbish TAFE. We're the ones who have invested in 180,000 fee-free TAFE places to make sure that we have the skills of the future. This is what an adult government does. We show by leadership, and I will come into this place every single day and put Mr Albanese's reputation up against Peter Dutton's or Scott Morrison's any day. (Time expired)