Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

It is extraordinary. On a matter of public importance about Labor needing to bring its spending under control, from each of the Labor speakers we have heard, there has not been one mention of the word 'debt' or the word 'deficit'. The answer to why that is so is: they confirm they care about neither. We have seen something else with previous speakers—and I will exempt the last speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer. As well as avoiding the topic of this MPI and launching attacks on our side of politics, the Assistant Treasurer, once again, demonstrated the incredible capacity Labor has to mix its metaphors when trying to tell a story. The member for North Sydney rightly said that we all grow up learning stories and fairytales. And sayings are handed down, are they not, from family to family? I was horrified to hear the Assistant Treasurer say in response to the member for Cowper that they were going to open the barn door and let the fox into the henhouse.

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