James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Last night we witnessed the great Australian deception. The backbone of our country, our farmers who produce what we eat and we wear, our resource miners who keep our economy running and our regional, rural and remote communities, along with middle Australia, were cast aside. In his budget address, the Treasurer did not even utter the following words: 'road'—no mention of roads in the budget; 'rail'—no mention of rail in the budget; 'dam'—no mention of dams in the budget; 'bridge'—no mention of bridges in the budget; 'agriculture'—no mention of agriculture in the budget. It didn't mention infrastructure, farming and mining. Those words—roads, rail, dams, bridges, agriculture, infrastructure, farming and mining—were not mentioned at all in last night's budget. So, if anything shows you the priorities of this Labor government, it was the lack of those words in that budget, because they do not understand how our economy works. They do not understand that unless you grow the economy, unless you support business, unless you support those who are willing to put their livelihoods on the line, then you will not grow the Australian economy and you will not take an axe to inflation. Last night's budget showed Labor's priorities, but, more importantly, it showed their lack of priorities.

Australia needed a budget that reduces inflation and reins in spending to bring down the cost of living for all, but instead we got a typical Labor budget with high taxing and high spending. It's a budget that leaves all Australian families off by about $25,000 a year. Shame, Labor, shame.