Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

All I can say is that it is a great privilege to be able to follow that address from the member for Wills. It's a great privilege, because what the people of Australia did on 18 May this year was vote for a little less conversation and a little more action. When it comes down to it, that is what we are delivering every single step of the way. I fully concede that it is not the action that the opposition is looking for, because the action they're looking for is the thing that led them to lose. It is the policy platform they took to the people of Australia and said, 'We want to do this; we want to increase your taxes by $387 billion.' So, if you're looking for that plan—I'm sorry to break it to the opposition—you'll find it was rejected. It was rejected resoundingly. In fact, everybody expected that, despite all their follies and failures, the plan would be endorsed and they would be sitting on this side of the parliament. That's how comprehensively it was rejected. I know you feel the pain every day, because you wanted to have the chance to govern this country, and the Australian people turned around and said: 'No! We do not want what you have to offer. We do not believe in your policy plan.' What they actually wanted was a government that did act, that did stand up for the national interest and that will take decisive action to deliver against challenges.

So let's talk about the drought. Let's talk about the plan that this government is not thinking about, not getting up in question time and asking questions about, but delivering. Let's talk about the support package we have delivered: $100 million to drought-hit communities. Let's talk about that being on top of the $7 billion in drought support funding already provided by the government, because the drought is a concern for everybody in the Australian community. Yes, there are drought-affected communities in rural and regional Australia and parts of Queensland and New South Wales and Victoria, and they're concerned. But I can tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, the people in the electorate of Goldstein are also concerned, because they're connected to the land as well. They know it's critical for dealing with issues around our exports, our food supply and for the future growth of this nation. We have provided billions in support to make sure we help our farmers. We back them every step of the way and we back our drought-affected communities every step of the way. The only reason you can do it is that you're running a strong economy and you have the budget surplus to provide the assistance and support in a situation like we're facing right now. You don't have it when all you do is slow the economy, whack massive new taxes on it and then go off and spend it in an indulgent way without any concern for the future.

I fully accept that this action is completely foreign to the opposition, because their plan for heavy new taxes, like the housing tax and abolishing negative gearing as we know it, is what they wanted to do. We're not doing that. The insidious, evil retiree tax, where they wanted to hit a million Australian low-income earners, is not something we are going to do. I see the member for Macnamara over there smugly looking at us on this side of the parliament. He wanted to vote to hit his own low-income earners who are self-funded retirees, people who stood on their own two feet and made a contribution to this country. Their only solution is to wreck them.

Go back to the speech from the member for Wills and look at what he was taking about. He was extolling the virtues of a carbon tax he wants to introduce. He wants a carbon tax to be introduced in this country. Now the International Monetary Fund has tolled the bell and said, 'To deliver Labor's plan of what they want to achieve, you would need a carbon tax in excess of $100 per tonne of CO2 greenhouse gases.' That's your plan. Why don't you take it, and be honest, to the Australian people! This is the plan that Labor has.

I can just keep going. In the end—

Mr Wyatt interjecting—

My dear and beloved colleague at the table, the member for Hasluck, among many other illustrious colleagues, points out that the member for Perth doesn't even seem to know the consequences of his own state Labor government's policy. We have given top-up money for the GST to the WA government. We have given housing agreements. And what's the barrier? The state Labor government! Even a Victorian can see how shallow your arguments are.

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