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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Before the last election, the Prime Minister promised Australians no increases to taxes. Now millions of Australians are being slugged with a GP tax, a petrol tax and now a higher GST. Why didn't the Prime Minister tell the truth about his new taxes? Why should Australians have to pay for the Prime Minister's lies?

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

The whole premise of the Leader of the Opposition's question is false. The whole premise of the question is false. Fuel excise indexation is not a new tax. It is precisely the tax that the Hawke government put in place in the 1980s. A modest co-payment for Medicare is a fee for service, and it is precisely the measure that the former Hawke government put in place back in the early 1990s.

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

Raising revenue off the backs of sick people.

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

The member for Ballarat is warned!

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

This is an opposition which is simply incapable of facing the reality that they have inflicted on this nation. The opposition inflicted a debt and deficit disaster on this nation. They are in denial; they have been in denial since the election. We were elected to fix their mess, and fix it we will. Fix it we will. That is what the people elected us to do, and that is precisely what we are doing. This is our duty and we will not fail to discharge it.