Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why does the Prime Minister's unfair budget slash the household budget of 10,000 families in the electorate of Page?

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

I will tell the member who asked the question what is unfair: starting the boats and putting the people smugglers back in business; that is unfair. And I will tell you what is fair: stopping the boats and saving all those lives at sea. I will tell you what is unfair: saddling generations yet unborn with debt and deficit; that is unfair. And what—

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

Madam Speaker, on a point of order: there has got to be something that is relevant to the question. To just go into a riff like that—

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

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. I would put it to the Manager of Opposition Business that if people, when phrasing their questions, use rhetoric such as the term 'unfair'—which has become very much a catchphrase—they leave leeway for people to answer in those terms. But I will say to the Prime Minister that some reference to the question, as well as that content, is needed.

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

I was asked about unfairness and that is exactly what I am talking about—the unfairness that members opposite inflicted on the people of Australia and, in particular, the people of Richmond. It was absolutely unfair to saddle the people of Australia with debt and deficit stretching out as far as the eye can see. Intergenerational theft—that was the unfairness that members opposite saddled the people of Australia with. And we are riding to their rescue with a credible path back to surplus which reduces the deficit by a half a percentage point of GDP every year. That is what we are doing. The fairest thing we can do is encourage people to go out there and take the jobs that are available. The fairest thing that we can do is fund with tax incentives the small businesses of our country to create the jobs that are there, as well as making it easier for people to take those jobs—more jobs, and more opportunities to take those jobs. That is the kind of fairness that this government is determined to create. That is the kind of fairness that was destroyed by members opposite when they were in government. That, I fear, is the kind of fairness that members opposite will try to destroy. They cannot help themselves. They will try to destroy the fairness that this government is creating by mindless obstruction in the Senate. This government has a plan for a better Australia where people come closer to realising their potential. And all that members opposite have—and we see it again and again and again today—is a long litany of complaint; one long whinge from members opposite is all we get. The Australian people want a political movement with a plan for their future—a better future for the people of Australia—and that is exactly what they have got in this government.