Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I take the member for Dawson's interjection. I encourage those opposite to get back to what they enjoy doing and let us get on with the job of cleaning up this mess. I am amazed, as the member for Flinders was, at the audacity, the irony and the hypocrisy of those opposite in proposing this matter of public importance which speaks about a failure to deliver on promises.

We only have to go back two or three years ago and reflect on what the member for Lilley told us in his budget speech in 2012:

The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the strength of our economy …

He went on:

This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.

And then there was the member for Lalor, who said:

I rule out a carbon tax ... There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead …

No-one on this side of the House, no-one in the Australian community, has forgotten that fundamental breach of trust between the former Labor government and our nation. It goes to the core of every bit of anger in the community in the lead-up to last year's election. It explains why the Australian people simply do not trust the Australian Labor Party and why they want to us clean up the mess.

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