Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

She lied, in that instance. She made a statement to the Australian people in the middle of an election campaign when they were about to vote. She said: 'Have confidence in me. It is all right. I won't put a new tax on you.' Who would be a young person these days, as compared to the generations that have gone before us, when they have the property taxes, when they have the GST, which our parents did not have, and when they have all the other taxes, which the Treasurer, coming into the room, knows all about? It is hard to get ahead these days because of those taxes.

I say to the Labor government of the day, because of my experience in 1993 of being thrown out and my experience in 1998 of being thrown out: it is fine if you have got a big margin, but if you have not got a big margin, you are likely to lose your seat in a taxation election campaign, and that is what is about to happen to many of you in the Labor Party at the next election. It may happen to you anyway—we work hard to get rid of you. But this will go all the way up to the member for Hunter. If you are under that, you are gone; if you have special interests in your electorate, you are gone. If you come from Geelong or the Illawarra or La Trobe Valley and you are a Labor representative, you are gone. What I learned was, no matter how many times I reassured my community that we could compensate them for the GST, the Labor Party sent out one more scare campaign with Alan Griffin's name on it and I was dead again. It was simply a scare campaign.

You have a carbuncle, and that carbuncle is recognisable to you and every other Aust­ralian. I am not criticising the office of Prime Minister. I am saying your party has a carbuncle and that carbuncle is Julia Gillard, who is locked into that tax. What you need to do is rip that carbuncle out of your party and get rid of it.

An opposition member: Like a boil, it needs to be lanced.

I do not need words put into my mouth; it is hard enough getting this out as it is. It is a carbuncle that you have to remove. If you do not remove it, the Australian people are going to remove it for you, along with many of you.

Take it from my experience: it is not a good feeling to go down once, it is not a good feeling to go down twice, it is not a good feeling to go down three times and it is not a good feeling to lose four times, two of them on tax. Just remember that. It is taxation: you will have to know every detail of it. I have lived it; I have worked it. It is very, very hard and it is near impossible to win. I challenge you that you will not be able to win this argument. The member for McEwen has just come in. Mate, I have been there once or twice in this place and the rest of the people do not think much of you when you come back. Coming back is hard.

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