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

I withdraw. It was so offensive! The $2.3 billion that the Labor Party announced to pay for Gonski, they are now opposing. They still want us to deliver their election promise to spend the money, but they do not want us to deliver their election promise to save the money. And then of course there was the $1.5 billion in the reversal of tax cuts that Labor promised as compensation for the carbon tax they were going to terminate.

So, on one hand Labor is saying, 'You should be more responsible with the budget' and on the other hand they are opposing everything we are doing to get the budget bottom line back in shape. And the Labor Party is now opposing everything they were doing to get the budget bottom line back in shape. There is a little message here: if you want to be a credible opposition you have to have some core principles. I know the Labor Party had no consistent core principles in government. But give it a shot in opposition, because hopefully you will be there a long time.

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