Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You know who I feel for today, apart from all those mums and dads that are out there that are really struggling under this government? You know who I feel sorry for? I feel sorry for Bill Shorten, because Bill Shorten would be sitting in his vice-chancellor's office at the University of Canberra and be thinking: 'Why? I tried to do the right thing. I took these policies to the to an election. I took these policies to the people, and they knocked me back.' But this government, under this Prime Minister, learnt their lesson. You've got to give them that much. This government knows that, if you take unpopular policies to the people in an election, then the people will figure you out, and they'll let you know about it. But, under the cover of darkness—and not just the cover of darkness—the Prime Minister and the Treasurer consistently said: 'No, there'll be no new taxes on housing. It's not going to happen. How many times have I got to tell you? Fifty times, I've got to tell you it's not going to happen.' Guess what? It's happened.

Believe it or not, we cop a lot of you-know-what with the members of the public as politicians. Is there any wonder why, when you have people like the Prime Minister making those solemn promises, looking squarely down the line of the camera and saying, 'It's not going to happen under my leadership.' And then there's a change of heart, and it's sold like this: 'We've had a change of heart because things have changed. There's this intergenerational equity issue.' What a load of rubbish. This is socialism from that lot, the government over there. This is the biggest form of redistribution of wealth in this country since the Whitlam government.

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