Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

If we needed any evidence after last night that Labor simply cannot be trusted with money, we could have seen a precursor to that by having a look at this bill before us today. Again, it is one of Labor’s ill-conceived, rushed, panicked pieces of legislation which clearly demonstrates something that we on this side of the chamber—and I think a good majority of Australians—have always known, and that is that Mr Swan is simply incapable of managing Australia’s economy.

We now know that last night’s budget clearly demonstrates that Labor has lost control of public spending. They are burdening every man, woman and child in Australia with huge debt that will take decades to pay off—and we on this side of the chamber know about paying off debt. It took us 10 years to pay off the legacy of Labor’s last term in government.