Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The late great Margaret Thatcher once made the observation that the problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people's money, and that is what the Australian people are in the early stages of understanding as we speak right now. The Labor Party, however, do not understand that this is not their money. We're dealing with the money of the Australian people, the workers of Australia. Superannuation is not your money. It's not your money; you didn't work for it. And, despite the Assistant Treasurer's views that we heard this afternoon repeated, that this was simply honey which could be taken from the hive, this is not the manner in which hard-working Australian people view their own savings.

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have basically gone back on their promise. These are changes that they said they would not make at the election, and we are seeing history repeating itself here with the same old Labor Party. This is what I imagine the voters of Australia—the 31 or 32 per cent of them, or whatever it was, that voted Labor—must have at least thought, that they were going to get something different out of the other end of the pipe. This is a bit like what I imagine it must be like to be a North Melbourne supporter at the start of a football season, just thinking that the new season is going to bring something different and, yet, come about round 4—about where we're up to—all we're seeing is clangers and kicks out of bounds on the full. This is what we're seeing. And, let's be honest, despite all of that, it doesn't matter how many colourful parades the Prime Minister goes off and marches in, it doesn't matter how many all-expenses paid trips he takes to go and visit the global glitterati, the little fellow from Ukraine, whatever his name is in the green T-shirt—whatever his name is. Who cares? It doesn't matter; nothing matters. It does not matter because, ultimately—