Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Bonner for his question. I think I can say without a shadow of doubt that he is the greatest member for Bonner that this House has ever seen. It is probably known in this House that the Commonwealth in its most recent budget balanced the budget, cut tax and further reduced debt. In fact, the Commonwealth is now building a net asset position. Now that we have had all of the states except for New South Wales deliver their budgets, we can say that collectively the Labor states have left their budgets in deficit, have increased tax and are building up debt—the very reverse of what the Commonwealth is doing. For example, Queensland will increase its vehicle registration duties from 1 January 2008; Western Australia announced increases in water, electricity, public transport and motor vehicle registration costs; South Australia announced increases in compulsory third party premiums, motor vehicle registrations and water; and Victoria announced increased taxes on poker machines and that it would abolish its petrol subsidy by 0.429c a litre.

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