David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They were loose with the truth, and that is becoming readily apparent now. When they were asked by the media, by commentators and by voters ‘What do you mean when you say you are an economic conservative?’ they said, ‘We will deliver budget surpluses’—and the voters believed them and elected them to government. Here we are, 18 months later, and the reality is now exposed. The fact is, as we have seen from last night and from everything that this government has done in the last 18 months, debt is in Labor’s DNA. Every Labor government since at least World War II has left office owing more money than was owed when they came into government.