Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Shame! That is quite a night’s work, isn’t it—$117 million? Among the measures they blocked was a new compliance regime to stamp out rorting of welfare benefits. And, as a consequence of their action in the Senate, employees in the charitable sector could lose up to $100 a fortnight because the opposition may block a bill containing Labor’s urgent amendments to protect employees from the Howard government’s 2006 FBT changes. That will be on their heads. That is the extent to which they are prepared to be bloody-minded and to punch a hole in the surplus. The opposition’s blocking of these measures will prevent the government from undertaking simple checks to determine whether individuals satisfy the income test for the Commonwealth seniors health card—checks that they themselves undertook when they were in government. This is an opposition that do not know where they are going. They certainly do not understand the inflation challenge that this country faces. We understand disciplined economic management; they do not. We understand cracking down on welfare rorts; they do not. Their rank opportunism is vandalising the budget in the Senate and putting at risk the fight against inflation.

See this speech in context