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

The only cut that has been proposed to carers in recent times was back in 2008, when members opposite attempted to scrap the carer bonus altogether. The only cut that has been proposed to carers in recent times was by the Labor Party back in 2008, when they attempted to abolish the carer payment, and it did not happen, because the coalition successfully opposed it.

I just say again to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—who really should be better than this, who really should be above scaring vulnerable people—yes, we have had to make a range of difficult decisions, but we have only made these difficult decisions because someone had to clean up Labor's mess. Given that Labor was incapable of cleaning up its own mess, the people of Australia voted for the coalition to do the job that Labor was incapable of. And we will do this job. We will do it in a competent, trustworthy way and in a way which is as compassionate as it can be under the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

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