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

We've heard, from the previous two speakers, the perfect rendition of a Labor mantra. There is no tax dollar earned by the hard work of Australians that they don't consider theirs for their own agenda. There is no respect for taxpayers, there is no respect for people who have worked hard to save and be independent, on their own two feet—only hip pockets to be raided for their own interests. It's no surprise that the member for Canberra got up and opposed this bill. After all, the whole basis of the Canberra economy is, literally, government: the raiding of taxpayers' hip pockets for the benefit of the few.

This is a fundamental issue at the heart of this legislation. Those members of the opposition simply do not understand the consequences of what they advocate for. They simply don't understand that hard work should be encouraged and respected and that Australians' hip pockets are not simply theirs for financial gain. We saw this at the election. They stand here talking about the consequences of modest shifts in the welfare system to make it sustainable, while at the same time they went to the last election demanding $387 billion of taxes, including the $57 billion tax specifically on Australian retirees—specifically designed so that people would have lost one-third of their income on 1 July this year, had there been a change of government. Do you know what their response to the Australians was? It was nothing but contempt. To be fair, they said: 'Don't vote for us.' And I think they were right not to do so. But they called it a gift, their hard-earned money, their reward for effort, their tax refund raided by the Labor Party.

Labor had the temerity and the gumption to come into this place and lecture a government that wants to be prudent and responsible in spending money, that wants to make sure that we can have a pension system that's sustainable for the future, to have a pension system that is able to deliver for those who need it today and into the future. The objective of this bill is very straightforward. It is what we need to do to keep—

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