Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to the government's budget papers which said (1) there is no provision in the budget for the carbon tax, (2) that the carbon tax will be budget neutral and (3) that the budget contingency reserve is not a general policy reserve. Given that the government is now raiding the contingency reserve because of its carbon tax, for which the funds will need to be appropriated in order to support power plant compensation, is this not a Whitlamesque move which breaks each one of these three commitments made just two months ago?