Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very excited about tonight's budget. We have things that are going to address the challenges that Australians are going to face in the future. We want to make sure that people have the confidence that they can get up and be rewarded for their hard work. We want to make sure that we have provisions so that we can have education for our children. We want to make sure that we have money for our aged care and money for our health services. Clearly Australia is walking through some difficult times. The world has stagnation but we have growth and we have a plan to put forward that is going to make people very proud.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Party has a plan?

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Party has a plan. Our plan is based on rewarding those who are going to get out of bed and those who are going to deliver hard work, making sure that they get the fruits of their labour. That is something that I think all Australians should strive for. We have a good story to tell and I have to say respectfully that I do not think that the opposition has done the legwork in opposition to ask the Australian people for another term of government. They are still the same people who delivered us $123 billion of accumulated deficit over a very short number of years. I think the Australian people will think very seriously about whether they are prepared to trust us or trust the opposition when it comes to the next election. I am very confident that our plan, our long-term commitment and our vision for the future will deliver us another term in government.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today, on budget day—or at least I think it is after the spectacle of question time yesterday, when some of us were left wondering after we saw our Treasurer not quite sure what day budget day was and having trouble counting to two. In education parlance he was having difficulty with one-to-one correlation.

We also saw the Deputy Prime Minister discussing sexually transmitted infections and carp, completely disrespecting a question from his side. We had a Prime Minister being agile with the truth and demonstrating yesterday only that he is obsessed with the Labor Party and with our leader, Bill Shorten. Of course, why wouldn't he be obsessed with a party that has 100 policies in the field? Why wouldn't he be obsessed about that? And why wouldn't he be obsessed about a party that is showing unity and demonstrating everything that he cannot find on the other side in government? We have the united team that he can only dream of.

Even the word 'budget' must be sending shivers down his spine because of course the ghosts of budgets past are walking the hallways today. We know that the 2014 budget—that cruel, unfair budget—will be back. If not tonight, then if this government is returned the 2014 budget ghost will be back and visited upon the Australian people.