David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance moved by the member for Wentworth is further evidence that those on the other side of this chamber know no bounds when it comes to sheer hypocrisy—those who, just a short time ago, issued that great clarion call that ‘working families have never been better off’, a clarion call that was denounced by people throughout this country. Hardworking people in communities right across this country stood up to be counted at the last election. They were not going to take the fact that they were under enormous financial pressures, many of those pressures created by the profligate spending and continual pork-barrelling by those on the other side, using budgets year after year to win votes rather than invest in our nation’s long-term future. The result of that, their legacy, is the highest inflation in 16 years—the highest inflation, stripping away the living standards of working people across this country and eroding the value of the money in their pockets.

This is the great challenge, a challenge that we as a government are ready to confront head on. That is why in this budget we have reduced government spending. We have brought to an end the rapid increases in government spending that occurred consistently throughout the period of the previous government.

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