Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

No. I will tell you why. We went to the last election saying, as the Prime Minister said, that taxes will be lower under the coalition than under Labor. The fact of the matter is that there is a wonderful graph in the budget papers that clearly shows that, as a result of the decisions we have taken since we have come to government, tax collections are lower than they would have been if Labor were re-elected. The thing about Labor is that they are experts when it comes to tax and deceit. Exhibit A was the mining tax. That was the benchmark success for taxation reform laid down by the member for Lilley. He is a very gifted man, the member for Lilley. He manages to introduce a tax that raises no money. That is quite an achievement. In the case of the Labor Party, they promised 'There would be no carbon tax under the government I lead', and then they go and do a deal with the Greens. There was no higher purpose for introducing a carbon tax. The money was not going to go to something that was going to build a stronger nation.

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