Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It was their budget that killed consumer confidence in this country.

Ms Butler interjecting—

One of the worst budgets indeed, Member for Griffith. In fact, when you look at a household on roughly $60,000 to $65,000 a year losing $6,000, it is no wonder they will not spend. It is no wonder that confidence is down. When people are confronted with the prospect of a GP tax, with the prospect of $100,000 university degrees, when you see all the changes to supporting the young jobless, when you see, for example, all of the things that are being done to pensions, it is insane that you could have those opposite saying that the economy is going great. You can only say that here. They would never say this outside, because no-one would believe them. Everyone knows that the economy is in a funk and that the people opposite are doing nothing to repair it.

To be fair to them, we expected too much. When they said they would be an adult government it was not reality; it was an aspiration. That is what they were aiming to be.

See this speech in context