Grant Chapman (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It has happened at last. It has taken six months, but now it has happened: the wolf has shed its sheep’s clothing. This high-taxing, high-spending, old-fashioned Labor budget makes clear that the claims of the Prime Minister and his government to be economic conservatives are demonstrably false. This first Labor budget in 13 years obviously does nothing to fight inflation and will only disappoint those Australians who put their faith in this Labor government to maintain the sound, responsible, economic management of the Howard government. First, there is the tax grab through the dramatically increased tax on premixed alcoholic beverages, badly disguised as an attempt to deal with the problem of binge drinking amongst young people.