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

I want members of the House—and the member for Ballarat, who is interjecting, in particular—to focus on this. A moment ago Labor was complaining about the price of petrol. I point out to the Labor Party that the Victorian Labor government withdrew a petrol subsidy in its recent budget. And the Tasmanian government did the same thing. It withdrew a subsidy of 1.95c per litre on petrol and 1.99c per litre on diesel. So it would be very interesting to know whether the Labor Party has criticised any of the state governments that have recently withdrawn petrol subsidies and put prices up as a consequence. If any of them have, they can speak now or forever hold their peace. They have held their peace. In addition to that—

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