Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where are the defenders of the family budget? Where are those people who last term you saw at the greengrocers, you saw them at the butchers, you saw them at the fishmongers, you saw them at refrigerated storage. You even saw a former Prime Minister out there at an ironing board, telling everyone that every single thing would be increased as a result of the carbon price. Whyalla would be wiped out and we would all be forced to eat $100 roast lambs—that the earth as we know it would be completely flattened because of the impost of the carbon price. And then what happened?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They got rid of it.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the parliamentary secretary points out, they got rid of the carbon price. And what happened? Five hundred dollars was handed back to families. Yet in the same term they are prepared to contemplate a GST increase that would result in a $4,000 cost for families. When you confront them on this, they say, 'Oh, we are not doing it—but we're not ruling it out.' So they are not doing it but they are not ruling it out. I tell you what, we are going to flush you cowards out. We are going to get to the bottom of this. We are going to show the Australian public that this bunch of hypocrites that went around last term saying that they were the defenders of family budgets are nothing but the enemy of families. They are committed to increasing pressure on family budgets. (Time expired)