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

And they are proposing another $15 billion of additional spending. I am perplexed at this new economic narrative from Labor that suggests that, if you spend more, the bottom line improves. Where does that idea come from that if the government spends more, then the deficit will improve? The bottom line is that, every time the Labor Party blocks something, there is a cost not just to us but to the Australian people. Nothing illustrates it better than the fact—something that the member for McMahon should be familiar with—that the Labor Party are opposing $1.1 billion of savings that they announced in relation to R&D tax concessions for the 20 largest companies in Australia. It was the member for Lilley who advised the Australian people that that saving was essential to improve the budget bottom line, and the member for McMahon got all confused about it and thought it was related to Gonski. It was never related to Gonski. It was directly as a result of his attempts to try and fix the budget bottom line, which was a crisis when Labor was in government.

Mr Swan interjecting—

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