Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Would an economic conservative want to do that? No, of course an economic conservative would not want to do that. Would an economic conservative, if he really supported all of the hard economic work that has got us to where we are now, describe it as a ‘brutopia’? I see that the member for Lilley is now describing himself as ‘Scrooge McDuck’. I told you they got their inspiration from Donald Duck cartoons, did I not? ‘Brutopia’ is a description that the Leader of the Opposition found in a Donald Duck comic and ever since then he has tried to portray that it came from Michael Oakeshott and he just cannot find the reference. Let me tell you: economic conservatives do hard work. Economic conservatives are prepared to make the tough decisions. Economic conservatives are those people who are there in the hard times, setting the economy up for the future. You do not retain an advertising agency, go and have a look at a focus group and say you are entitled to all of the outcomes of all of the hard work and all of the effort. The people of Australia know that economic management comes from hard work and hard effort. It is hard work and hard effort that this Leader of the Opposition has not done, and he does not deserve to call himself an economic conservative.

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