Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Those listening to the debate on the economy through question time and this matter of public importance would surely be amazed to hear the Prime Minister during question time and now the Minister for Trade lecture the Australian public and the opposition on surplus budgets. They would find that unbelievable. Only those opposite, only the minister and those behind him, could suspend their sense of reality on their budget record over the last four years, or over the last years of the Hawke and Keating government, enough to keep a straight face and lecture any member of the Australian public on budget surpluses. I say to members opposite that the more you engage in this ridiculous, unreal argument, the more you insult the Australian families who know that your debt and deficit, your fiscal irresponsibility, costs them dearly at the end of the day. The shadow Treasurer outlined in great detail your failure on jobs and outlined very eloquently your failed fiscal record.

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