Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The next election should be and will be a battle of plans about the Australian budget, about the Australian economy. The Labor Party does have a plan to tackle the most unsustainable parts of the budget in a fair way, to get more fairness into the budget and to make it more sustainable. The Abbott government also has a plan, but it is the opposite plan. The Abbott government's plan is to leave the most unsustainable parts, the fastest-growing parts of the federal budget untouched but to come up with more ways of making our tax and transfer system less fair. It wants to come up with unfair ways of tackling other parts of the budget, the sustainable parts of the budget. The Abbott government has gone out of its way to find ways of doing the opposite of what should be done when it comes to improving the budget bottom line.

Labor has a plan, for example, to make our tax system in superannuation fairer and more sustainable. The government, which lectured us and the Australian people that the budget was unsustainable, that we were heading towards Greek levels of debt, that tough decisions were necessary, does not have the courage to admit and acknowledge that which every serious commentator and analyst has pointed out—that the taxation treatment of high-income super in Australia is not sustainable, it cannot be afforded and it is not fair. We on this side of the chamber have the courage to say it and the Prime Minister and Treasurer lack the courage to say it.

The Treasurer did indicate a few weeks ago that he was interested in a national conversation about this, that he wanted to have bipartisanship.

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