Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

the Australian people, they have been talking up the issue of inflation. They have said that this budget would be about bringing the cost of living pressures down by bringing inflation down. They have said to the Australian people on a constant basis that they need to bring inflation down because that is the biggest scourge in the Australian economy at the moment. When you look at the facts, though, and when you go beyond the media spin that really is the front of this government, you realise how hollow their rhetoric is and you realise what  considerable damage the Treasurer has done to this economy over the last six months. He has belted the hell out of confidence, not just for consumers but for business as well in this country over the last six months. It has been a great demonstration of the way in which a Treasurer—as Treasurer of probably the greatest nation on earth—should never, ever conduct himself or herself. It has been an appalling display and it goes completely to political motive and has nothing to do with economic responsibility and certainly nothing to do with economic conservatism.

I just want to point to how confused the Labor Party is on the issue of inflation. It was the Assistant Treasurer himself who, on 22 January this year at a press conference—and this is the Assistant Treasurer whose contribution we have just heard—in his own words said: ‘Inflation has been low in Australia over the last few years.’ How do you reconcile that statement at his press conference in January this year with his contribution today, because it shows him, like the Treasurer, to be a liar on the issue of inflation, and that is a—

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