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

that the government do not particularly want to do these things, but the government have to do these things in order to deal with the debt and deficit disaster which the Labor Party—the party that the member who asked the question represents—created. The difference between the government and the opposition is that we have a plan to deal with the debt and deficit disaster that Labor created and Labor is in denial about the debt and deficit disaster that it created.

Labor used to think that a surplus was important. As soon as they moved into opposition, they thought that a surplus was unimportant. As soon as they moved into opposition, they abandoned even the rhetorical commitment to achieving a surplus. This is the problem with members opposite: they were incompetent in government and they are irresponsible in opposition. They were wreckers in government and now they simply want to wreck government generally.

See this speech in context