David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Rarely have we seen such a clear-cut example of why we are over here and those opposite are over there. This is yet another example of Labor's reflective solution to every single issue—that is, spend more money. It does not matter what it is; whatever the topic is, spend more money. They believe that is the solution. You want to create a political distraction? Spend more money. You want to avoid the real issues? Spend more money. You want a cheap headline? Spend more money. Absolutely anything, they will want to spend more money.

The Australian people know that governing is a serious business and that simply saying, 'We're going to spend more; we're going to do more and spend more on absolutely everything,' is not sustainable. Frankly, it is a childish approach that leads to terrible problems. We have seen that no more clearly than in relation to the mining taxes. We do have to back up a little bit; we do need to talk, unfortunate though it is, about the mining tax because the situation we face in superannuation is so closely linked to that. That party over there is the party that said the mining tax would create $12 billion of revenue in the first two years.

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