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

I thank the honourable member for his question. The member for Bowman knows, as every other responsible member in this place knows, that if we expect Australians to live within their means so too must a government live within its means. The legacy of Labor is $667 billion of debt in 10 years' time if nothing is done. And the Labor Party are determined to not only stop us from fixing the mess that they created but also stop us from adopting some of their own measures to fix the mess that they created. They are opposing $5 billion of savings that they announced at the last budget. They took these to the Australian people for endorsement at the last election and now they are opposing their own savings.

But do not worry, they have other savings. One of their savings is to reintroduce the carbon tax, because the Labor Party believes that increasing taxes is a saving. Well it is not a saving for everyday Australians, of course, but the Labor Party never see that as any cause for concern. The bottom line is the Labor Party—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

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