Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He said that there would never, ever be a GST. Is there a GST? Did Mr Howard introduce a GST? Yes. Does that mean that there never, ever was a GST? Of course it does not. They will argue that black is white and that white is black to try and justify their opportunistic argument. It is consistent with their opposing everything that this government has put forward. Ever since Mr Abbott took over their leadership, that has been their code: oppose, oppose, oppose. You could have predicted last week how the opposition would behave this week. We also had the experience of Mr Abbott as the health minister saying before an election that he would give a rock-solid, ironclad guarantee that certain health changes that his government had implemented would not be taken away.