Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott, in his speech to the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry, offered no policies, no costings to fund his pledges and gave no explanation of how he would manage our nation's economy. All he offered Australians were an audit, more slogans and the same old negativity.

On the one hand, shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey promised us two days ago that the opposition's $70 billion worth of cuts would be made public before the next election, whereas Mr Abbott told the Australian people just a few days ago that they will have to elect him into office first. Clearly, the coalition is in disarray on this question.

We know that shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has recently said that the opposition has in fact finalised its policies and costings, including its $70 billion planned cut in services, but refuses to tell Australians what and where they are. A journalist asked Mr Hockey: 'As recently as last Tuesday Tony Abbott said Australia needs an election and that he called on Julia Gillard to have one as soon as possible. Does that mean that your policies that you would take to this election that could be held in 33 days are done, costed and ready to roll out?' Mr Hockey said:

Based on what we know now we are doing all the costings. All our policies are costed …

The journalist asked, 'So you have found those savings you are looking for?' and Mr Hockey said:

Yes, we have found the savings we were looking for.

I say to you that if the opposition have truly finalised its costings then they need to come clean with the Australian people. They cannot just think they will coast into government on slogans and negativity: they need to come clean now. They need to reveal what they want to cut and how; how much their policies cost; and where they plan to get the money to fund their undeliverable promises.

Mr Hockey has in fact contradicted his own shadow finance spokesperson, Andrew Robb, who said less than 10 days ago that the opposition had not finalised any of their major policies. So, if the opposition cannot even agree between their Treasury and finance spokespersons which of their policies are ready to go, how is it that they will be able to come clean with the Australian people? Tell me how it is that they will have a plan for our future. Does Mr Abbott truly think he can slide into government without telling people how he will manage our budget, where $70 billion will come from? From health? From education? From skills? Perhaps from the national disability support scheme? Where are his policies?

Let's talk about hope, opportunity and reward, shall we? It is what the coalition has sought to put forward today. I can tell you there is a great deal of hope, opportunity and reward in the more than 700,000 jobs that Labor have created since we were first elected, in the fact that we have bulletproofed our Australian economy and kept it out of recession in the worst economic downturn in three-quarters of a century. Our economy's fundamentals have remained strong—