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

The question by Senator Keneally goes to the heart of the modern Labor Party. The reason this is relevant, Mr President, is that I'm comparing and contrasting the Labor Party under Mr Shorten with the Labor Party of old under Mr Beazley. What we can see is that Mr Shorten is all about putting his hands into the pockets of pensioners and self-funded retirees, whereas Mr Beazley understood the cost-of-living pressures that pensioners and self-funded retirees were facing. Our government has not considered such a proposal. We are not prepared to put our hands into the pockets of pensioners and self-funded retirees. Bill Shorten's two-card trick these days is to run a vested-interest-type attack against the so-called undeserving rich, to run the— (Time expired)