Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. This government has a $120 billion budget black hole, and it does not know where the money is coming from. The Treasurer refused to answer questions in parliament today about where the money is coming from. He obviously refused to answer them in his own caucus this morning. He refused to tell them. Not only are the people of Australia concerned about where the new taxes are going to come from to pay for this irresponsible spate of promises, but so are the backbenchers of the Labor Party. He could not answer the backbenchers' questions today. It is time he came into the parliament and told the Australian people where the money is coming from. It is not Monopoly money; it is real money that has to be paid back.

Is it any wonder that in caucus today four backbenchers complained about his big spending announcements and the looming cuts to the public service? Labor has form on cuts to the public service—3,000 already gone in Canberra. The member for Griffith, when he was running Queensland, managed to sack 12,000—Dr Death killed 12,000 public servants. So what are Labor doing now? Preparing a new round of cuts to the public service and a new round of taxes. Some of them have belled the cat. Some of them have said what is actually going to happen. Doug Cameron came in and he is proposing—

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