Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Families across the country are dealing with real challenges, so we make no apology—while those opposite giggle and guffaw about the financial pressures faced by families today—for delivering $47 billion of tax cuts to those families, no apology for ensuring that we deliver an education tax refund of $4.4 billion, no apology for ensuring that we increase the childcare tax rebate by $1.6 billion from 30 per cent to 50 per cent and on top of that deliver a housing affordability package of $2.2 billion. These are practical measures which deliver to the bottom line of working families and we are proud of what we have done in unapologetically tipping the balance in their direction.

The contrast between what we have done and what those opposite have done stands in absolute stark contrast. Those opposite have advanced three propositions in the course of this budget debate: (1) that the inflation challenge facing Australia is a charade and a fairytale, (2) they have argued that there is no economic case for cuts in government spending and (3) they refuse to support effective measures concerning welfare reform. We find ourselves in a situation today where the Labor government of Australia is now being attacked from the left by the big-spending Liberal government of the past on these critical measures of economic competence and performance. Furthermore, when it comes to issues of social policy, we now find ourselves being attacked from the libertarian left of the Liberal Party who say that we should not intervene when it comes to binge drinking and the proper treatment of RTDs. I find it remarkable that we have a Liberal Party today which has lost its way, lost its direction and bears no resemblance to the great party of Menzies of the past.

See this speech in context