Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Wrong, we hear. Let me read to you a fair summary of the situation that appeared in The Guardian on 24 August, 2016. The Guardian doesn't always run to our defence, I tend to find, as a government, but this is what The Guardian said on 24 August 2016:

As both sides gear up for the looming sitting period, Labor has also this week debated whether or not to proceed with a … saving it accepted during the election campaign … the abolition of an energy supplement.

You would have thought that if it wasn't true then The Guardian would have let us know that—wouldn't you think that? Those opposite come up, time and time again, and try to pretend to this place that somehow or other they did not bank this saving knowing it was the end of the carbon tax compensation.

What the opposition do do is before an election they say they are opposed to the saving and they say they will support the saving, and then after the election they are opposed to it again. When the election comes around again, they will support it again, they will bank it again, they will book it again and they will spend it again. Do you know what? Even The Guardian will write about the fact that that is what they have done.

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