Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Labor's approach in government under the Rudd and Gillard governments and again now in opposition under Mr Shorten is to spend too much. That is then followed by borrowing too much and that is then followed by playing catch up with higher and higher tax grabs on what Labor think are easy targets across the community. That is how Labor does it. Of course in the last term of the Labor government they put more and more burdens in our economy, making our economy less competitive internationally at the worst possible time.

Right now under Labor the budget would be about $50 billion worse off. On the weekend there was Mr Burke complaining about the fact that we pointed out that under Labor the budget would be $50 billion worse off. He said, 'They have added in everything that we have ever complained about.' So I say to Labor: tell us where you really did not mean it when you complained about our savings. You tell us where you are not going to restore spending when you complained about our sensible savings measures. (Time expired)