Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am talking to the amendment, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Labor Party is dumping and trashing its own budget and now, without any explanation whatsoever, the Labor Party amends a bill it introduces from the budget. They roll back before they get a chance to roll forward. The Labor Party reduced interest withholding tax from 30 per cent to 7½ per cent and they are so committed to getting back to surplus they said, 'We're going to have to increase interest withholding tax to 15 per cent. But wait, there's more. We're going to pull it back. We're not going to tell you what we're gonna do.'

This is the confusion. This is the indecision. This is the incompetence that has writ large of Labor in government. This is what the Labor Party is about: absolute total taxation incompetence and absolute total policy incompetence, whether it be the carbon tax or the mining tax or employee share schemes or the alcopops tax or company tax cuts, which the government was so determined to deliver that it dumped them when it came to the budget. But wait. The Prime Minister, in a moment of great revelation to the business community, came down from the top of the mountain and said: 'Our top priority is company tax cuts.' But then the Passenger Movement Charge, and today they are dumping the interest withholding tax changes.

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