Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I could present to this chamber a list of the taxation bills that were voted against by Senator Ludwig and Senator Lundy and indeed all the people on that side. For Senator Lundy to get up here in this chamber and complain about the performance of the senators on this side is a farce.

What have we done? We have referred eight or so bills to Senate committees for further examination and scrutiny. The Labor Party has said, ‘Isn’t this absolutely frightful?’ because this means by the farcical figures that the Labor Party puts out—no-one else’s figures—some $300 million will be lost out of a budget surplus of $22 billion. If the Labor Party wishes it some of the bills can be backdated, so I believe this figure is complete nonsense. To be lectured by Senator Lundy on responsible management of the economy is simply extraordinary. Senator Lundy was a great referrer of bills to Senate committees. I used to note as I came into this chamber, day after day, there would be Senator Lundy making sure that bill after bill was referred to Senate committees.

Senator Ludwig, think about the bills for A New Tax system, which we promised in the election and which the Labor Party opposed with enormous vigour. Not only did you send the legislation for A New Tax system to one committee, you sent it to four committees. Those committees sat on each of the bills for three months or so. We had 12 months of committee hearings into A New Tax system. In the end, they were budget bills based on a clear election promise. What happened? The Labor Party fought it to the very end and voted against it, because, as Senator Ludwig said: ‘This is going to lead to a recession. This is going to lead to cuts in the income of working families.’ Do you remember saying all those things, Senator Ludwig? And what has happened? The Labor Party have become great fans of the GST.

I regret to say that we are seeing some of the greatest examples of hypocrisy that I have ever seen in this chamber. This was the party that specialised in voting against budget bills; this was the party that constantly referred budget bills to Senate committees. So for them to come in and lecture us that we in some way are not acting responsibly has no merit whatsoever, especially after the scrutiny that was given to the GST bills. Just think of the dire consequences that the Labor Party predicted if those bills were ever passed. (Time expired)