Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition made a very grand speech today, and he's painted the picture of a vision for two different Australias. Under a vision of a future with a Labor government, it is the everyday Australian being poorer. In a future under the coalition, it is everyday Australians being richer. In a future under Labor, small businesses are closing down. In a future under the coalition, small businesses are growing. In a future under Labor, job security is weak. In a future under the coalition, job security is strong. He talks of two visions, and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who just gave her speech, was talking about, I think, two letters. I think the problem is that there are two worlds that the Labor Party are living in: the real world and the fake world. It's like when the little boy who is being naughty throwing stones at cars from the school playground suddenly smashes a window and is the first one in there to the teacher and saying, 'Sir, I saw somebody throwing stones at cars.' I think the psychologists call it something like psychological projection, where one decides to blame others for undertaking the unfortunate actions of oneself. Someone who is really rude might go around saying to everybody, 'Everyone else is rude.' This is exactly the strategy of the opposition because the Leader of the Opposition has stood up today and stated his future vision for this country—and he'll take it to the election—it is one of less tax, yet this is the party that is, in fact, opposed to lowering taxes.

This coalition government is in the business of lowering taxes. The opposition is doing everything to oppose it. The opposition believes in increasing taxes. Why does Labor wish to have higher taxes? Because they wish to take money out of the pockets of individuals to suck it in to the vortex of big government because they know if they can make Australians poorer and if they can make Australians less secure, they're going to be more reliant on big government. That is precisely what the opposition believes in: it's all about big government so you punish hardworking individuals, you rip into their pockets and take out the money, and you make their jobs insecure so they will turn around and be reliant on big government and, therefore, the Labor Party.

Then the Leader of the Opposition carries on saying he wants to protect people with hospitals and schools. So tell me this: why would the Labor Party ensure that teachers and nurses have to pay more money due to their taxes? How is that looking after teachers? How is that looking after nurses? Why should young families pay more money to buy a property—a family home—because of Labor's negative gearing policy? Why should young families be punished by Labor's taxes? Why shouldn't there be the right to deduct costs for managing one's own taxes? Again, it's everyday workers' money that will be stripped away by the Labor Party. We will have young entrepreneurs who will be forced to pay higher income taxes. We will have farmers who'll be slugged with higher capital gains taxes. Why? Because they want to suck it into the vortex of big government—that's all the Labor Party does.

There is one exception—and let's give them credit—where the Labor Party actually did not try to take a higher tax revenue. You know what it was? They opposed the tax avoidance legislation for multinationals. Seven billion dollars a year is forecast but, no, they don't want to take it off multinationals; they want it to take it off mums and dads. They want to ruin the lives of individual Australians because they believe, by making them poorer and by making them weaker, they're going to turn to big government, and that's where Labor has its sweet spot. We will stand by lower taxes and we will absolutely fight Labor every inch of the way.

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