Doorstop interview - Parliament House

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE:  This has been a large week as we start to wrap up the parliamentary year. What we've seen is a massive announcement from my Australian colleague, Senator Patrick Dodson, to announce that he will not be rejoining us in 2024. I, like many, want to pay tribute to Patrick's contribution, not just in the Senate, but his contribution to Australia and his appointment to the Senate, which was something I was very pleased to be a part of back in 2016. Something that I think which has made not just the Labor family in Western Australia proud, but I think it's made Australia proud. I also think it's raised the quality of debate in this place. And what Patrick Dodson leaves is that he has educated so many in this Parliament and in our nation about how we can truly walk together on that path to reconciliation. And again, like so many I thank him for his service.

What we've also seen in the Parliament this week, is the national apology for the victims of the Thalidomide tragedy. It is just so sad to took so long for this apology to be delivered. But it was a really proud moment to see Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the Parliament yesterday, recognising that the Parliament needed to say sorry, and indeed we did. And again, that raised the standard of the debate in Parliament this week. But it also meant so much to so many families across Australia. And today, Minister Mark Butler will designate the national memorial site for Thalidomide survivors and victims which will be again, something that's very well welcomed.

What we're seeing on the legislative side in Parliament this week, is we've seen Closing Loopholes go from the House of Representatives back over to the Senate, we've seen the Australian citizenship laws move again from the House of Representatives now over to the Senate to do their work. We've seen the debate last night on the Government's legislation to ban hate symbols to ensure that we protect what is a very welcoming society here in Australia making sure that we say there is no place for hate, there is no place for the trade in these symbols. Again, proud work of the Albanese Labor Government.

What we have today is the National Reconstruction Fund is truly open for business. The National Reconstruction Fund, as of today is open for business. You'll see an announcement from Minister Husic a little bit later today, as we start to get investments from the National Reconstruction Fund to back Australian manufacturing to back our sovereign capability. And it's great to see that just a few months after that passed the Parliament, it is up and running and open for business.

What we will introduce today in the Parliament is the Help to Buy scheme. The Help to Buy scheme is about making sure that more Australians can get into a home that they own. This is a commitment that Anthony Albanese announced at the 2022 Election, and we are delivering on that commitment. It will be a partnership with the states making sure that more Australians can get into a home with assistance from government, based on various successful schemes that have run for many decades in a range of places, including the Keystart program in my home state of Western Australia. So, that's a bit of what we have come here to do this week.

As I get towards the end of this parliamentary setting week and the end of this parliamentary year, what is very clear to me is that week on week, the Albanese Government comes here with plans for Australia's future. We come here to work for Australia. Week on week we've seen absolutely zero ideas put forward by Peter Dutton and his shadow ministers. They had come here week after week to complain, to snipe, to whinge, but there is not one idea that they've put forward this year.

We didn't see any policy ideas put forward over the last six months from Peter Dutton. It is an incredibly interesting thing to watch; that someone who claims to be an alternative Prime Minister of Australia thinks that he can somehow put himself forward for that role without putting forward a single positive idea. And when you look at the ideas they put forward in government, what we are doing as we will continue to do, week on week, is clean up the mess left by the Morrison-Dutton Government that led Australians down on so many things.

On TAFE. They let them down when it came to the way they conduct themselves privately with their secret ministries. They let Australians down when it came to the inflation mess that they left behind. We will continue to clean up Mr. Dutton's mess and I challenge him when we come back in 2024 to maybe come with just one positive idea.