Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate. I refer to the Prime Minister's plans to visit Western Sydney and her visit to the Rooty Hill RSL on 12 August 2010 in the closing days of the last election campaign. On that election visit, the Prime Minister told the people of Western Sydney and, indeed, Australia that she would bring the budget back into surplus in 2013 and that Australia's net debt would not exceed six per cent of the GDP. It is now around 10 per cent. Given that the Prime Minister has broken both these fundamental election promises about the budget—solemn promises, which in fact underpin her ability to deliver everything else—why should the people of Western Sydney believe anything she tells them when she condescendingly drops in to Western Sydney to see them again in March 2013?