Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

If those opposite want to have a debate about promises and commitments and commitments delivered, well, bring it on. I welcome it. I welcome it warmly because our government went to the election with some very key promises and commitments. This was very obvious to all. We said we would axe the carbon tax, and we have axed the carbon tax. We said we would stop the flow of illegal arrivals and stop the boats, and we are stopping the boats. We said we would build the roads of the 21st century, and we are building those roads. We are starting construction and we are delivering across cities around Australia. We said we would fix Labor's debt and deficit disaster, and that is exactly what our budget seeks to do: to take responsibility for the failures of those opposite, to take responsibility for the mess they left us and this country in, to get on with the job of fixing what needs to be fixed and to make the difficult decisions to do so.

We hear a lot of bluff and bluster from those opposite, and none more so perhaps than from Senator Carr. They go on and claim and talk about the cuts that are allegedly made in this budget. We have taken difficult decisions in this budget—