David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

about me being too tough on the opposition. I have not even begun. So we have this so-called commission of audit. This is what I like to call the chamber of horrors, because it is about locking up all of those nasty cuts that those opposite plan to make. You are just not honest enough to put them before the Australian people before an election. What you do is say: 'We've got it all under control. Trust us. Once we get elected, in the next term of parliament we'll set up this you-beaut commission and it will go through with a fine toothcomb and determine all of those places where appropriate cuts need to be taken.' If you think you need to make cuts, come clean with the Australian people and explain to them which vital services you intend to cut. What sorts of cuts are you going to make to Medicare? What sorts of cuts are you going to make to school funding? What sorts of cuts are you going to make to universities? What sorts of cuts are you going to make to family payments? These are the questions that people in electorates like mine and in communities like mine all around the country deserve to know before they go to the next election. We know about the $70 billion black hole; we just want to know how you intend to fill it. What cuts are you going to make to fill that hole?

It is really interesting that we never actually see both the member for North Sydney and the member for Goldstein running side by side in one of these debates. That is because every time they open their mouths they contradict each other. They contradict each other every time they contribute to a discussion. On this question of whether or not they have costed their policies, the member for North Sydney has an answer for all occasions—the member for Goldstein knows that—but those answers are not always right. The member for North Sydney was asked a question about whether or not the coalition had done the hard yards on costing their policies. He said:

Based on what we know now, we are doing all the costings. All our policies are costed.

The journalist said:

So you have found those savings you were looking for?

And the member for North Sydney said:

Yes, we have found the savings that we were looking for.

That was on 13 March 2012. Just a few days earlier, on 5 March 2012, the member for Goldstein said:

We haven't finalised any of our major policies …

That it was a very productive week of policy work I find hard to believe. Why should we be expected to believe that they managed to do in one week what they have not managed to do in the last four years, and that is develop policies, develop plans, for Australia's future and cost them? They have not done it for four years, so I find it just a little bit difficult to believe that they did it in about a week.

I have to say that I have some sympathy for the member for Goldstein, because I tend to believe him more than I believe the member for North Sydney. When the member for North Sydney says, 'Don't worry, she'll be right, all the policies are costed,' I do not believe it. The coalition have an enormous task ahead of them when it comes to filling that $70 billion black hole. They do not have any plans and, if they do, they are not prepared to share them with the Australian people because they are so scary and so nasty that nobody would ever vote for them. The coalition could come forward and say, 'We'll start to rip out the heart of Medicare,' in the way in which coalition oppositions have always wanted to do, but very rarely have they ever been brave enough to say it.

Dr Stone interjecting—

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