Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Again, members of the opposition are spreading untruths. It is as simple as that. The member who asked the question has said something about pensions which is simply are true, because pensions will go up every six months of every year. Back in March, the single pension increased by $14 a fortnight. The married rate increased by, I think, $11 for each member of a married couple. Increases of this order will take place later this year, twice next year and twice the year after that. Every six months the pension goes up. What has happened is that the government will, over time, somewhat reduce the rate of growth—the reason being that we do need to address the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite left us.

This is the problem. The problem is that we are paying $1 billion a month in interest—that is $1 billion in dead money—because of the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite left us. We have a plan to fix this; all Labor has is a complaint. Once upon at a time, we had serious people in the Labor Party. When the Labor Party was led by people like Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, they had some serious answers for our country. They were prepared to take some tough decisions to reform our nation and to help set up the prosperity of the future. I regret to say: how a mighty party has fallen. This government will do what is necessary to put our future on a sound and sustainable basis—because that is exactly what the people of Australia elected us to do. We will not shirk the task.

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