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

Well member for Sturt, let us just see what unfolds in this interview between Mr O’Brien and the Leader of the Opposition. The first question which is asked by Mr O’Brien of the Leader of the Opposition is:

… Mr Abbott, is it honest of you to say baldly, as you just did, that this entire cost of $100 billion plus, will actually come out of taxpayers’ pockets. Consumers pockets, is that correct?

The first evasion from the Leader of the Opposition is as follows:

But it’s a giant money-go-round, it’s a giant drag on the economy.

He then goes on, but the question he was asked was, ‘Is this $120 billion a tax coming out of taxpayers’ or consumers’ pockets?’ Mr O’Brien has a second effort to extract the truth from the Leader of the Opposition and asks again:

Is it honest of you to say that consumers and taxpayers will pay $110 billion, or whatever figure you use, is that honest?

The Leader of the Opposition’s answer on the question he has been asking me today about is:

Because of the, of the volume of trades,—

I am seeking to be absolutely accurate in what it contains here—

Because of the, of the volume of trades, the accumulative value of all this, on the Government’s own figures, is close to $120 billion.

Then we have the third attempt by Mr O’Brien at asking the direct question of, ‘Is the $120 billion a tax on people and on consumers?’ Mr O’Brien asks:

The total churn, as you put it, does not mean that individuals will foot that bill, does it.

To which the Leader of the Opposition replies:

Yes.

He agrees with the proposition that it is not a tax on consumers. That is what he says. It is absolutely clear.

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