Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I think there is a very clear explanation for this, because this is just another cash grab by the Liberal Party in Brisbane. That is what it is, and I think the Brisbane City Council are going to have a lot of trouble demonstrating the claims that they are making. For example, $11 million is claimed to cover a rise in inflation of 0.7 per cent, but that is based on the average price increase for households, and councils will be subjected to smaller price increases—and the list goes on.

The fact is that those opposite are going to come into this House every day and exaggerate the impact of the carbon price because they do not have any policies in particular; they just have this reckless negativity of the Leader of the Opposition. But, of course, as we get closer to 1 July he starts to run away from his previous positions. First of all the price rises were going to be absolutely through the roof. Then Whyalla was going to be destroyed. Then whole industries were going to go down the gurgler. They are clearly not, because what we have here is not a Leader of the Opposition; we have a snake oil salesman who is slithering around the country peddling his falsehoods because he does not have any policies and he is trying to cover up the fact that he wants to rip out the tax cuts that are coming in on 1 July and to get rid of the tripling of the tax-free threshold. He has also said—

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