Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Marshall acknowledges that that is what Labor did. Indeed, what was our policy at the last election? It was: go for growth. What did we hear in response? The thundering of Mr Rudd: ‘This reckless spending must stop.’ He said that the reckless spending of the surplus—which was in fact the people’s money in any event—had to stop. He said that it was that bad that the economy was overheating—overheating to the extent that in the May budget Labor hoovered out of the economy $20 billion by increased taxation. That was to slow the economy down, to dampen it down. We of course said that that was the wrong action. Having had an economy that was overheating in May, and with those allegations still being made as late as July, there we were three months later with a stimulus package to try to pick the economy up again.