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

Secondly, the Labor Party made a huge number of announcements in relation to taxation savings in the last budget, and when we came in to government the Treasury advised us that they could not be legislated. And why? Because Labor was so incompetent at drafting taxation policy that they were undeliverable policy announcements. Look no further than the mining tax, which under Labor had five different drafts and then, at the end of the day, raised just three per cent of what it promised.

So, Labor is a complete fraud when it comes to taxation policy. They do not know how to write it, and when they introduce the taxes all they do is harm the Australian economy. And the third key thing about Labor that the Australian people ought to understand is that you can never trust what Labor says; you can only look at what they do. And when it comes to Labor, they will promise to have surpluses—

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

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