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

Aha! That is where it is at. I see—the department of climate change has nothing to do with the forecast revenue about climate change. No, that is Treasury. Treasury has come up with this figure of $12.10. That is quite interesting. It is interesting because you saw the hot potato travel faster than a speeding bullet from Senate estimates across to the Treasury building, so when Treasury appear they can explain it. But what is more revealing is that we now have a new economic model in Australia called the straight line. The straight line comes about like this. You lick your finger and then you draw a line upwards. That is how you do it. A fantastic new form of economic modelling: the straight-line model! It is pretty simple. You can use a ruler, you can wet your finger, and have rising revenue. Rarely do you wet your finger and have falling revenue—no, that does not suit the government's case. This is a new economic model that only goes in one direction.

This is a classic example of why this budget just does not stand up. They knew we were looking at this. They knew we had been looking at the modelling in relation to the mining tax. We got it right on the mining tax. We will get it right on the carbon tax. At some point someone has to tell the truth about the state of the budget. But, whilst Labor is in office, you will never get the truth, whether it be the historical truth or the truth about what is real today.

See this speech in context