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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Minister for Finance's statement on Sunday, and I quote: 'No minister has ever said to me that the budget was unfair.' So, just to be clear: has any minister in your government ever said to you that the budget is unfair?

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

The unfairest thing of all is the intergenerational theft that members opposite perpetrated on our children and our grandchildren. That is the unfairest thing of all.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Lingiari will desist as will the member for Bendigo.

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

As a result of the profligacy of members opposite, as a result of the incapacity of members opposite to exercise fiscal discipline, this country is saddled with debt and deficit stretching as far as the eye can see. It is saddled with repaying a billion dollars every single month just to pay the interest on Labor's debt and deficit. That is the challenge that this government is dealing with.

Thanks to members opposite, thanks to the fundamental unfairness against the future, this government is wrestling with a big fiscal challenge—but we are up for it. Some 80 per cent of budget measures have already been implemented and some $16 billion worth of budget savings are now in place. But what we are not going to do is rip off the future to satisfy ourselves. That is what members opposite did. They ripped off the future to try to buy an election. That is what they did. They were prepared to sacrifice our children and our grandchildren's future for their own political purposes. That is the ultimate unfairness and that is what we are saving this country from.