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

You do not understand economics at all, Senator Marshall. If inflation is as bad as they claim, why would the government deliver a budget measure which will only put further upward pressure on inflation? The government cannot have it both ways; either consumer spending needs to be restrained or it does not. You cannot spend an entire election campaign and your first six months in office saying one thing and then deliver a budget full of measures which deliver another, simply hoping that no-one will notice the hypocrisy. The opposition has noticed and, I assure you, so will the Australian people, who are far smarter than they are given credit for by this Labor government. At the end of his budget speech, the Treasurer stated:

It is a Labor Budget for the nation. For Australia’s future. For all Australians.

While this certainly is a Labor budget, it is certainly not a budget for all Australians. It was high taxing—definitely Labor.