Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Last November, the Labor Party was left with one of the strongest economies in the world—the ‘Wonder Down Under’. How quickly—and, sadly, how rapidly—that has all changed. The Rudd government, like all other Labor Party governments before it, both federal and state, cannot manage an economy. Give Labor something in good working order and it will not be long before it is broken: the stock market has plummeted, the budget says unemployment will rise by 134,000, consumer confidence has fallen to a level not seen since the recession of the early nineties—the recession that then Prime Minister Keating said we had to have—inflation is at a 17-year high and strikes are up by 800 per cent. This government is completely incapable of managing the economy that it inherited and delivering good governance for our nation. The reality is that Labor inherited a wonderful legacy. In 12 years the coalition’s policies had reduced tax and other such revenues by a net $214 billion. In the nine months under Labor, taxes have already risen by $19.7 billion.

See this speech in context