Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

There is no other plan. There is only operation budget repair. Labor continue to be in denial, as I said earlier. They refuse to face up to their responsibilities, having left behind a complete mess. Labor is still in complete confusion—not only are they opposing nearly $40 billion worth of savings measures now—first they say they are opposed to the budget repair levy and then they pass it. And now we have the Greens—the Greens are now the party that stands for regular cuts in the fuel excise! In 2001, the fuel excise was about 41.5 per cent; today it is about 25 per cent. And now the Greens tell us that they want the fuel excise to continue to go down and down—that is what the Greens are telling us today. What we would say to the Senate as a whole is: we need operation budget repair to succeed, in the interests of our economy— (Time expired)