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

It is not a new tax; it is indexation of an old tax, a tax that was first introduced by the Hawke government, which was a genuine reforming government, a government that was capable of engaging in mature debate and a government that was capable of looking at the long-term national interest and not just playing short-term politics with everything. It was introduced indexed by the Hawke government—

Mr Shorten interjecting—

Yes, as the Leader of the Opposition interjects, it was frozen by the Howard government in very different circumstances to those that apply today—in circumstances where the Howard government consistently delivered surpluses at one per cent of GDP. There were successive surpluses at almost one per cent of GDP by the Howard government. Of course, under members opposite we got deficits of about three per cent of GDP.

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