Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I can understand why Senator Ronaldson wants to interject, because he does not want people to be reminded that, in 11 years in government, they never put this up. When you had to pay for it, you never put it up. The hypocrisy of the opposition! Over a decade in government they never chose to make these changes when they had to find the money for it all, and now, in opposition, they want to use private senators’ time to impose a cost on the federal budget that they cannot fund. So let us be clear: to anybody who has a concern about this debate, I accept your right to advocate for an increase—but let us remember, this opposition, when in government, when they had to find the money, never found the money. And now they are trying to use their position in opposition, where they don’t have to find the money, to come into this chamber and seek to impose a $1.7 billion fiscal cost on the federal budget.