Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

'Ultimately, the Prime Minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership that our nation needs.' It was true when the now Prime Minister said that before he became Prime Minister, and it is still true now. What we saw in last night's budget was continuity with change. That is exactly what we saw in last night's budget. It was continuity with change, certainty with chaos, calm with fear—Turnbull yet Abbott. That is exactly what was presented to us last night. It is even affirmed in the documents that were given out last night.

The poor Prime Minister! Clearly, people had not told him what was in the budget. He was asked a question by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition about the impact of the budget on someone earning a million dollars a year compared to the impact on a single mum who is earning $87,000 a year with two kids in high school. The person earning a million dollars, after what was confirmed last night, will end up nearly $17,000 a year better off. The single parent working on $87,000 a year ends up $4,500 worse off. No-one told the poor old PM. On page 8 of the budget overview it said:

The Government is committed to ensuring that the $13 billion of unimplemented expenditure savings measures are passed by the Senate or alternative savings measures identified to continue on the path to a balanced budget.

What the Prime Minister needed to know is that that means the 2014 budget is still here and the 2015 is still here. The cuts that brought down the previous Prime Minister and caused the end of the Abbott government have all been adopted in black and white last night by the Turnbull government. The very least those responsible for these decisions could have done was tell the Prime Minister, but the poor bloke stood up today with absolutely no idea as to what has been put in his own budget. Not only that, those opposite have been getting up and thinking that the changes to the corporate tax rate that were announced last night were about small business. Nobody told them what was in the budget!

I reckon the Prime Minister did know about this one. I think it is fair to say that he was onto this. So desperate was the Prime Minister to provide a tax cut for big business that he decided to use small business as Trojan Horse. Not surprisingly, those opposite will only talk about what happens to the definition of small business in the first year.

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