Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

No. I really want you to listen to this point. We have seen in the debate in recent times the Labor Party making these extravagant claims about $80 billion. They say there is $80 billion in cuts. That was always a lie. It was a lie because they never had the money. The Labor Party never put the money in the budget. They did not have the money. The only way they could ever get the money was to borrow the money or to increase taxes. That has become apparent during this campaign as they have said they are going to have $100 billion in extra taxes.

This $19 billion so-called rounding error, in the words of the Labor Party, this $19 billion hole, is so important now because it confirms every concern the Australian people have about the Labor Party. The fundamental concern that the Australian people have about the Labor Party is that they cannot be trusted with money. Even if you ask Labor Party supporters—even those who vote for the Labor Party because they want more spending and they are not that worried about fiscal responsibility—who they want to look after the budget, who they want to fix the budget, they will say in a heartbeat, 'The coalition.'

If anyone wanted evidence or to be reminded—perhaps some Australian people were starting to give the Labor Party a chance—why the Labor Party should never come back on this side of the chamber it happened yesterday. The Australian people do not trust Labor with money. Why don't they trust them? Because Labor inherited no government debt—$70 billion in the bank—and they left us a legacy of hundreds of billions of dollars of debt.

Now they say, 'If we come back in we are going to spend even more than we did last time'—$80 billion extra apparently on health and education. Well you do not have the money. The Australian people are not fools. Every time during this campaign—this is going to follow Bill Shorten like a bad smell during this campaign—Bill Shorten and his team promise something people will be saying, 'Where is the money coming from?' He will say, 'We have got our new taxes.' Well he does not. It has been shown to be a farce. It has been shown to be an absolute lie. This is what this campaign will be about. Labor cannot be trusted with your money. (Time expired)