Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. The parliamentary secretary, the member for Lindsay, comes in supporting a parliamentary budget office, even though in 2007 on coming to the Treasury benches the government could not fulfil the requirements of the Charter of Budget Honesty. And here they are, laying down a range of issues with respect to the Parliamentary Budget Office that severely constrain the powers of that office and that require the PBO staff to go and have secret MOUs with a whole range of government departments.

The question for the government is: how hard is it to be open, honest, accountable and transparent? I know you won office in terms of duplicity. I know you won 2010 because of gross duplicity. I know you won the last election because the Prime Minister stood there and said 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

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