Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In his budget reply last year, the Prime Minister promised the Australian people, 'No-one's personal tax will go up.' Will the Prime Minister repeat that promise now?

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

As members opposite will discover soon enough tonight, this is a budget which keeps faith with the commitments that we have made to the Australian people, and the most fundamental commitment of all is to get the budget back under control. Let us not for a second—

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order: it is a very clear question. It could be answered with a yes or no. It could be answered with a repetition of the promise that 'no-one's personal tax will go up'.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

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

The situation that this government finds itself in is that we are confronting debt and deficit stretching as far as the eye can see. I can understand why members opposite are upset about the fire brigade—because they are the fire. We did not create this problem, but the people elected us to fix it. That is what the people did, and fix it we will. And we will fix it in ways which are fair and faithful to the pre-election commitments that we made.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the member for Braddon.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On previous occasions when government members have missed the call and we have had two in a row, you have then evened it up during question time. The same thing happened earlier in question time. We presume that the same process you followed for government members will be followed for the opposition.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What happened previously is that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition did miss the call in that she was not standing when the member was. There is a difficulty: the member for Braddon and the member for Ballarat were both standing, I have to be honest. I will give the call to the member for Ballarat.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister promised the Australian people the night before the election: 'no cuts to health'. Now that Australians know that they will be paying a GP tax every time they visit the doctor, how can the Australian people trust anything this Prime Minister has to say?

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

The important thing is to ensure that government makes the investments that are necessary to ensure that our health system is sustainable and that cures and treatments are better in the future than they have been in the past. I think there are some tough decisions about health in this budget. There certainly are some tough decisions about health in this budget, but what this budget does include is massive investment in better health for all Australians and for people around the world in the years and the decades to come.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

If the shadow minister is looking for good sense when it comes to health policy, she ought to talk to the shadow Assistant Treasurer—

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

who certainly did make good sense on this issue in times past.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gorton will withdraw his comment earlier as unparliamentary.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.