Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the last part of the question, the answer is clearly no. Having said that, can I indicate that it is quite natural for our fellow Australians to express some concern at the changes that the government has implemented. They expressed similar concern when we introduced the goods and services tax, and Labor thought it could lazily ride into government on the alleged wave of GST discontent. Of course, the people of Australia said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ This is what Labor is trying to do again: ride into government on a scare campaign and a wave of discontent. But I suggest to those opposite that, just as they had to suffer the humiliation of doing their backflip on GST, they get it out of the way now, do the backflip today and save themselves the embarrassment tomorrow. (Time expired)