Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2010-2011 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2010-2011are more proof of everything that is wrong with the Labor government’s ability to manage the economy. They include wasteful spending and poor management leading to structural deficits which will result in families being unfairly hit by higher costs of living. This Labor government stress that they are helping workers and assisting families and—wait for it—regional Australians. Nothing could be further from the truth. They do nothing of the sort.

Since coming to power in 2007 Labor has been a government of waste, a government of spending—so much so that it has forfeited the $20 billion surplus it inherited from the fiscally responsible Howard-Vaile coalition as well as two funds that were established for the nation’s future. We have another coalition on the Treasury benches now. We have Labor in government, but the Greens are in power. Make no mistake about it: come 1 July, just 126 days away, when the Greens take control of the Senate, every piece of legislation will have a Greens tinge to it. This is why Labor, and particularly the Prime Minister, is pushing so hard for a carbon tax, a carbon tax in relation to which the same Prime Minister said pre-election—the day before, in fact—‘I rule out a carbon tax.’ Now, according to the Prime Minister, Australia cannot do without a carbon tax. It is good for business, she says. It is only going to hurt businesses, because every one of their inputs will have its price pushed up by having this carbon tax in place. It is going to push up petrol prices. In fact, the carbon tax—

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