Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are again on budget day witnessing more Labor denial. We are all forgiven on this side for thinking we have just heard three speeches much the same. When you analyse them, the member for Fraser was a bit different from the member for Moreton. I think the member for Fraser knows that Labor has a big apology to make to the Australian people and he is not quite comfortable with that fact. He very carefully managed to not mention any of the things he has advocated in a previous life that might reform some of the structure of the budget. With the member for Moreton, on the other hand, I think the Labor brainwashing machine has done a pretty complete job. I think he actually believes everything he said. He said he was confounded by a few things. We would say he is confounded by most things. That is what we say; that is our experience. It falls to the coalition government—here we are again—on the first budget of a coalition government to clean up Labor's mess. Peter Costello stood here in 1996 and began the clean-up: $96 billion of debt, a $10 billion budget black hole—

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