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

The member for Corio is an excellent golfer. Senator Conroy is not a bad golfer. The member for Hunter I understand is pretty handy—he has never invited me to a game—but he is pretty handy. I am a very bad golfer—I don't play any more—but I do know one thing about golf. There is a process we used to engage in when I played golf, called 'the mulligan', where you have another go if you do not get it right the first time. We have the Prime Minister engaged in one big national mulligan—'Have another go, don't worry about the first time. We didn't mean that. We might see economic growth going backwards.' Is it any wonder that this government, the new Prime Minister and Treasurer are struggling with this set of figures? They are struggling with the circumstances that they will make worse by increasing the GST. They will make them worse by putting the GST on fresh food and putting the GST on health and education. They will make them worse through their actions and their rhetoric. Is it any wonder that this Treasurer is universally known as WTH—'worse than Hockey'?

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