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

Ultimately, if we fix the budget we can help to deliver a safe and secure Australia. That only comes about through hard work. It comes about through a determination to deliver what is necessary to ensure that Australia can afford its future. From our perspective, it is important that we make a contribution now to pay along the way for some of the benefits we are going to get. In the case of fuel excise increases, we are asking Australians to pay 40c a week extra to help deliver the biggest infrastructure program in Australia's history—the biggest road building program in Australia's history. In Victoria alone, the EastWest tunnel project is going to deliver 6,000 jobs—we are asking the families of Victoria to contribute 40c a week to help create 6,000 jobs in construction work for roads that are going to deliver a more productive future. Once upon a time the Labor Party believed in this. We solemnly hope that sooner or later the Labor Party will come to understand that Australia has been at its most prosperous, Australia has been at its very best, when there has been bipartisan agreement to deliver the economic reforms necessary to strengthen our economy.

Opposition members interjecting—

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