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

I once more thank the member for Capricornia. The government has laid out clear and costed plans, responsible plans, to return the budget to surplus—and that is out there for all to see. But of course tonight it will be the Leader of the Opposition's opportunity to come forward and show us exactly how he intends to fill his $70 billion budget crater. It will be interesting to watch, because it really has been something in the nature of slapstick that we have seen.

The last time we saw the Leader of the Opposition go to an election and attempt to cost his policies, we saw him go to an election with an $11 billion black hole. But not only did he go to the election with an $11 billion black hole, he also went with a set of costings that had been costed by a dodgy audit. It was a dodgy audit. The irresponsible spending that we have seen from the opposition and their failure to come up with a credible plan to cost their policies mean that this evening the Leader of the Opposition will have to either come forward and acknowledge that he does not have the money to deliver the plans that he says he is committed to or come clean with the Australian people about exactly which payments and which services he intends to cut. If he does not announce tonight which ones he is going to cut then the Australian people will have to assume— (Time expired)

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