Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

You are? Oh, really, you think you are! I do not think the public thinks you are when they see 'no cuts to health'—cuts to health; 'no cuts to education'—cut education. It is an $80 billion hit that you have committed under this budget. 'No changes to the pension.' You have got pensioners shirt-fronting the Prime Minister on morning TV. They know full well that they are being hit. What is fundamental here is the fact that you have deliberately gone out and misled the public, and your chickens are coming home to roost. That is why you get this little smattering from time to time of backbenchers chipping in, because it is getting a bit uncomfortable on that side of the House—like I said, those palms are hitting the forehead—when they see the quotes from the Prime Minister and remember, 'Oh, yes, he did say that.' You have a plethora of them. The final one I want to hit is the one in Real Solutions—the one that came with the 'conditions apply' little caveat on it:

We pledge to the families of Australia that we will never make your lives harder by imposing unnecessary new taxes.

It was a shameful display through the election and it is a shameful effort in this budget for failing to honour what you said you would do. (Time expired)

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