Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

‘Taxes by stealth’ is the interjection by Senator Coonan, and she is right. I do not remember the government going to the election saying, ‘We’re going to lift your taxes by $19 billion,’ nor did I ever hear them say that they were going to increase spending by a net $15 billion—quite the opposite, actually. So from their first budget we now know what their mettle is—an inflation-feeding budget. We now know that this is a classic Labor budget—self confessed—with spending increased by $15 billion and new taxes of $19 billion. That is the make-up of their first budget. That is classic Labor. As I said, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of their first budget is the projected increase in unemployment of 134,000 Australians.