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

My question is to the Leader of the House, who is responsible for the government's legislative program. Can the Leader of the House confirm that he has no intention of bringing any legislation into the House which would raise the price of everything by increasing the GST to 15 per cent? Are the reports true? Has he fixed it?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a remarkably juvenile question from a remarkably juvenile opposition. They are practising old politics and finding it very hard to get a handle on this government, which is striking out in new directions and offering new hope and optimism to the Australian public, to business and to consumers every day through the policies it is implementing. On this side of the House, we are absolutely determined to focus on jobs and to focus on growth. We are doing that through innovation in my own portfolio, through trade in the portfolios of the foreign minister and the Minister for Trade, through infrastructure in the Deputy Prime Minister's portfolio, and through agriculture in the Minister for Agriculture's portfolio.

Australians are tremendously uplifted by the boost the Prime Minister has given to optimism and confidence in the economy, in the jobs market and in growth in Australia today. It is a remarkable turnaround. Yet we see the opposition continuing to practise their sad old politics. They think a not-very-scary scare campaign on tax is going to turn around their fortunes.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I see the junior woodchucks doing all the shouting. They tend to do that when they sense a leadership change coming. That has been my experience over the last 22 years. My experience has been that the junior woodchucks get very shouty when they feel a leadership change coming because they want to impress the other pretenders on the frontbench with how good they are—they want to get on the frontbench if the leadership changes.

Opposition members interjecting—

The member for Melbourne Ports knows exactly what I am talking about. His days of being shouty are well and truly over, it must be said. He has become very boutique, the member for Melbourne Ports. But other younger members of the opposition are very shouty because they are trying to impress the people's choice over here, the shadow Treasurer, and others who might want to seek to replace the member for Maribyrnong.

The government of course have all issues on the table, because we are a mature government. Of course we are talking about things to do with taxation—and the economy and growth and jobs—because the Australian public expects a mature political discourse. This opposition are not up to a mature political discourse. That is the sadness of it and that is why they are being marked down by the Australian public and will continue to be until they start to focus on substantial policy discussion.