House debates

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Matters of Public Importance

Budget

3:50 pm

Photo of Trevor EvansTrevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

From some of those stories that the member opposite told it sounds like she should be very happy to see the details in the budget—for the listing of new medicines and for housing.

With the modern Labor Party it is always a case of looking at what they do, not just at what they say. And so it is with fairness. It is actually so fitting that this MPI today was moved by the member for Rankin, who, as we know, was sitting at the knee of the then Treasurer, Wayne Swan, the member for Lilley, when he promised this nation four surpluses that never eventuated when Labor blew the budget, spent the nation's savings and shouldered the next generations with so much intergenerational debt.

I observe that these days the member for Lilley appears to be trying to reinvent himself as some kind of modern-day Australian Bernie Sanders. He wants nothing more than the opportunity to once again run that odd socialist test as to whether it really is possible ever to run out of other people's money. To use the word 'fairness' when what they really mean is old-fashioned class warfare does not really wash in today's Australia. Maybe the member for Lilley will actually be the next Leader of the Opposition. Maybe we will see what happens tonight.

The Labor Party likes to drape itself in the name of 'fairness'. But they are a hollow husk of that Labor Party of old, which used to stand for something. Now they just stand for hypocrisy. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, there is nothing fairer than telling Australians the truth—

Comments

No comments