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

Bob Hawke said, 'Sooner or later, an opposition needs to provide alternative policies if they really want to get elected.' The Labor Party created the budget mess. They are doing everything they can to stop us from fixing it. Even they have actually, in part, admitted that there is a budget mess. Old buggerlugs over there, the member for Lilley, confessed to Bob Carr that there is a real budget mess, and of course the Leader of the Opposition suggested there is a real budget 'task'.

Government members: A 'task'!

A 'task'! I suggest that is a call to action, in some sort. But there is a budget task. The thing is: the Labor Party is offering no alternative. Indeed, Member for Denison: what is your alternative? What is your alternative to Labor's legacy of $667 billion of debt? What is your alternative to Labor's legacy of deficits as far as the eye can see? What is your alternative to Labor's legacy of unemployment rising to 6¼ per cent—of over 700,000 Australians being unemployed? What are your policy alternatives over there? There are none. And why? Because we have the chief clerk of the national complaints desk here, who is more about complaining than providing an alternative scenario. We know the budget is difficult. We know the budget is tough. The fiscal consolidation is less than budgets we have brought down in previous years, and less than Labor's previous budgets. But the budget is right for Australia and it is right for the Australian economy.

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