Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I am coming to that. That saved us from going into two quarters of negative growth and going into technical recession.

The fact is that this government has done nothing but accrue debt, accrue deficit, and embark upon a great gouging of taxation to back up its profligate spending. If the real answer to solving an economic crisis was debt and spending then Greece would be in great shape. The bottom line is: you never learn. Every time we get a Labor government we get debt and deficit, and we have to come back in and fix it up. Then, because we have made it look relatively easy, it looks like a good opportunity for a change. So Mr Rudd was given a go. Well, he has had his go—now it is time for him to go. This country deserves better.

If we look at the way in which this great big new tax on the mining sector is going to impact upon seniors, upon superannuants and upon retirees generally, we will see the attitude that this government has to senior Australians. They use words like ‘burden’, ‘problem’ and ‘challenge’. They want to find a solution—’How dare they grow old!’ They are taxpayers. They are the people who built this country, and all you want to do is insult them. Here they are—

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