Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister promised the Australian people before the last election:

We are about reducing taxes, not increasing taxes. We are about getting rid of taxes, not imposing new taxes.

Will the Prime Minister repeat his promise now not to increase taxes and not to impose new taxes; and, if he cannot, how can the Australian people trust anything that this Prime Minister says?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am certainly happy to repeat that we are about getting rid of taxes. We want to start by getting rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax. The Leader of the Opposition is trying to make keeping commitments his theme; why is the Leader of the Opposition so keen to talk about keeping commitments while his senators prevent the government from keeping the most important commitment of all—the commitment to get rid of the carbon tax? Why won't this Leader of the Opposition allow this government to keep its commitment to abolish the carbon tax?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order going to the question of relevance. I asked a straight question: are you going to keep your promise not to increase taxes?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are going to honour our commitments. We are particularly going to honour our commitment to repeal the carbon tax. I respectfully suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that he would have a lot more credibility on the subject of keeping commitments if his senators were not standing in the way of the repeal of the carbon tax and a $550 a year benefit to every household in this country. What a fraud this Leader of the Opposition is to talk about keeping commitments when his senators are standing in the way of this government keeping its commitments. Now, the Leader of the Opposition has asked, 'Is this government going to cut taxes?' Yes, this government is going to cut the tax burden. As a result of decisions that this government has taken, the tax burden will be $5.7 billion less—thanks to this government.