Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Is that it? I mean, seriously! The opposition's response to the budget, which lays out a plan for the future, is to try and distract attention away from their failure to come clean with the Australian people about what their real plans are. Let there be absolutely no doubt about this: the commission for an audit—which the opposition is proposing—is a smokescreen to cover up a raft of Liberal cuts to health, education and services that Australians need.

They come in here and try to distract attention from it by saying, 'The figures are actually wrong.' What they are really trying to do is distract attention from their plans. Their plans are the same plans that we know Liberals always have: cut too hard and cut in the wrong places—just like you see in Queensland. If that is not right, why don't you come in here and tell everyone what you would really cut?