Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The 2014 budget is a toxic brew of arrogance and ambush, incompetence and inequality, division and disunity.

We are told that cabinet met yesterday to talk about how to better spin the budget. What those opposite do not understand is that it is not about the spin and it is not about the sales job; it is about the substance of this unfair budget. The government are now giving every indication that they either do not understand or do not care about the impact on communities like mine in Rankin and right around Australia.

It is little wonder that people are lining up to reject the budget when its chief architect has shown in the last few weeks that he does not have a clue. This is the guy who said that 'it is strongly arguable that pensioners are going to be better off', not understanding that his own budget papers have $449 million coming out of the pockets of pensioners over the next four years. It is the same guy who said, 'We are the best friends pensioners ever had', not knowing that the Parliamentary Budget Office said that $23 billion is coming out of the age pension over the next 10 years. It is the same guy who said that his electorate of North Sydney had one of the highest bulk-billing rates in Australia when in fact North Sydney has the fifth-lowest rate in Sydney, below the national average. It is the bloke who told someone with eight chronic illnesses that he would be exempt from the GP co-payment, when that is not true. It is the same guy who said that the tax system means that the wealthiest pay half their income in tax, not understanding marginal rates of tax.