Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by Senators Evans, Wong, Ludwig and Carr to questions asked by coalition senators.

Mr Deputy President, you may be surprised, but I actually enjoyed the agony of Mr Swan's budget on Tuesday night. What surprised me was his behaviour. He behaved far more like a conjurer or a magician than he did a Treasurer—far more Harry Houdini than John Maynard Keynes. The aim of Mr Swan's budget was to divert attention from the issues that really concern the Australian people. What are they? One is the cost of living. He tried to divert attention from that. The carbon tax—he tried to divert attention from that. The mining tax and border security—he tried to divert attention from those. Instead he pulled up a white rabbit, including digital set-top boxes for pensioners. He said, 'Hey, look at that; don't worry about the issues that really concern and confront this country.' We now know this budget was framed not in the national interest, not in the interests of the Australian people, but drafted in the political interests of the Australian Labor Party. A story in Tuesday's Australian quotes an anonymous Labor source as saying:

The Prime Minister told a caucus meeting that the budget would be tough but would also provide an opportunity for Labor to broaden public debate from carbon tax and border security.

What does 'broaden public debate' mean? It means to not talk about the issues that really concern the Australian people. It is Labor spin for talking about anything except the things that worry them politically but do worry the Australian people—things like the cost of living. Remember that, Mr Deputy President?

Why have we not heard in months anything about working families? In the lead-up to the 2007 federal election Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard could not say one sentence without talking about the cost-of-living pressures and working families. We all remember that in this place. They could not say one sentence in the lead-up to the 2007 election that was not about cost-of-living pressures. Remember that? Remember the government put up Fuelwatch to watch the price of petrol? What happened to that?