Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

And that is why it is not surprising that those opposite were rejected at the last election—because they could not be trusted to run the economy of this country. And they need to reflect on that, because what I notice from those opposite is a hubris and an arrogance, after the last election. We had the Leader of the Opposition do a lap of honour for an election he never won! Perhaps he was celebrating his victory over the shadow transport and tourism minister. Perhaps that is what he was celebrating. But what we know is that hubris and arrogance is preventing them from understanding that the Australian people do not want to see the country go into even higher levels of debt.

They wanted to add $16½ billion to Australia's deficit and to drive up debt. That is what they wanted to do. On this side of the House we outlined a budget that would see expenditure as a share of the economy fall over the budget and forward estimates and the deficit decline and we would, therefore, arrest the debt. Those opposite only have a plan to spend more, to tax more, to ensure the debt rises by more. That is why they remain totally opposed to providing support, particularly for small and medium sized businesses, which is necessary to drive investment, which drives growth, which drives jobs. So happy to have questions from those opposite, from the architects of higher deficits, higher debt and higher taxes.

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