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

Well, Joe: $555 million, which you have chosen to provide to the Porsche drivers of Australia, as opposed to $555 million for the public transport needs of Australia; $555 million for Porsches and $555 million less for public transport; $555 million for Rolls-Royces and $555 million less for urban rail—those are the priorities which those opposite have embraced.

Whether it is the luxury car tax or the Medicare levy surcharge—and let us go to this other element of the in-touch Liberal Party of the 21st century. Here we are in this week, where, for the first time in seven years, we have had an interest rate cut for working families, for those who have suffered those 10 interest rate rises in a row, and those working families, depending on the size of their mortgage, being benefited to the tune of $600 a year, on the basis of that 25 basis point cut. In the same week that working families get a $600 interest rate cut, the Liberal Party of Australia says that they are going to vote for a $1,200-a-year hike in terms of their taxes, through the measures that they are taking on the Medicare levy surcharge. So the Reserve Bank brings down, for the first time in seven years, an interest rate cut to save working families $600 a year, and the Liberal Party says, ‘We are going to reward you by giving them a $1,200 tax hike this year.’

See this speech in context