Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, I am aware of an alternative policy: that of the coalition, which seeks to spread the benefits of the boom to a very few—to those making the money out of our resources—and not to share them among the nation. We know the opposition have a $70 billion funding black hole, but put that in context. That amount of money buys a lot of things that Australian families depend on. It would pay for Australia's entire higher education budget for more than five years. That is the size of the cuts the coalition will have to make. Now they try to hide behind an audit, but they know and Australians know that, to fund the black hole, to fund the generosity to the large mining companies and billionaires in Australia, they are going to have to cut services to ordinary families. They will be things like the education tax refund, which allows families to claim the cost of school stationery and uniforms. They cannot fund the billionaires and fund those sorts of services, and Australians know that. (Time expired)