Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The point that I was making was that in my electorate there are far more important issues than whether the luxury car tax has been increased. In fact, in my electorate the issues that working families are concerned about are issues that this budget that the Rudd government delivered faces squarely and puts in place plans for for the future. Unfortunately, the reason that we have had to go at some length into some of the other issues in the budget is because of the carping opposition, because we are not sure what they are actually supporting; we are not sure what they are opposing. At this stage it looks like what they are trying to do is rip a $22 billion hole in a budget that is designed to alleviate the problems that working families in my electorate and around Australia have.

In fact, what we have is an opposition that does not know whether it is coming or going. We have an opposition that does not know whether it is supporting initiatives by the government or opposing them. One of the things I was looking forward to was hearing the shadow Treasurer speaking to see what position the government was actually going to take. (Time expired)

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