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

Honesty comes as a great surprise to members of the Labor Party because, of course, they did say they were going to have four years of surplus. They continue to delude themselves that in fact the budget is fine; but, in fact, the member for Lilley himself, in a confession to still existing Senator Carr, apparently, said the budget situation is 'ruinous'. So there is a bit of hypocrisy there.

There is a bit of hypocrisy from the Leader of the Opposition. If you came into this parliament today, you would think he was really concerned about the impacts of decisions on pensioners. But do you know what? It was about two years ago that he sidled up to me—just over there—and he begged me to help him to take 60,000 women off a single parents pension and put them on Newstart. Do you remember that, with the member for Jagajaga over there, because of the divisions in the Labor Party? Remember that: taking 60,000 single-income parents off a single parents pension? He knew about the divisions in the Labor Party. And then there were all these crocodile tears when they went into opposition—crocodile tears for single parents, crocodile tears from Labor, crocodile tears from the Leader of the Opposition.

Opposition members interjecting—

Oh yes, I got it wrong! He was the architect of it, with the member for Jagajaga. So the hypocrisy of the Labor Party is just a little bit overwhelming. They cry crocodile tears now about the fate of pensioners, yet when they were in government they did not hesitate to take people off a single parents pension and put them onto Newstart. Well, spare us the moment. We are the best friend Australian pensioners have ever had. We are their best friends, because we want the pension to be sustainable. We want it to be affordable. We want the pensioners of Australia to get a fair deal from the government, not just today but tomorrow. We will not cop the hypocrisy of this hypocrite! (Time expired)

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