Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to take note of answers. I'm going to focus on the economic issues. Before I do, I congratulate Senator Fawcett both on his question and on the very constructive way in which he approaches these issues. It strikes me as something that needs to be reconsidered by this government, and I will lend any support I can give to Senator Fawcett in that regard. His knowledge and background in the military is significantly more than mine, and he makes a very sensible argument.

On the economic issues: we again saw the government twisting in the wind, flailing about, attacking the opposition because it doesn't like its own record in the tax space. That's because the Australian people know that Labor governments over decades, over my life, have form in this area of not being able to be trusted on tax cuts. You don't have to go back very far, just to the previous Labor government. Everyone remembers the carbon tax mistruth—we'd better not say that other word because everyone gets upset; don't worry, I'm not going to channel a thesaurus like Senator McGrath! Everyone remembers the carbon tax mistruth from the Gillard era. Fewer people probably remember the 2014 tax-cut rollbacks that were also a broken promise.

We stretch back a little further, don't we, Senator Colbeck—I'm sure Senator Colbeck remembers the 'l-a-w, law' tax cuts.