Mr BRADBURY (Lindsay—Assistant Treasurer and Minister Assisting for Deregulation) (16:40): Sometimes, in moments of rage and excess, the truth comes out, and we saw it there from the member for North Sydney. They have been trying to conceal exactly what their true plan is, but we saw it in all its glory. The member for North Sydney just said, 'We're going to have to come in and fix up the mess.' Well, we refute the suggestion there is a mess, but I will come to that in a minute. But what he also said was, 'We are going to jack up taxes.' That is what he said. It is on the Hansard. He has finally come clean. Maybe he did not put that in the memo that he sent out to each and every one of you, when he said: 'Listen, guys. Whatever you do, don't have any contact with the Parliamentary Budget Office, because this time round they might actually record it and they might hold us to account for the unaffordable spending promises that we make.' You heard it there from the member for North Sydney: they are going to jack up taxes if they get elected. You do not have to be Einstein to figure this one out. The Leader of the Opposition got up and said in his budget-in-reply speech, 'We're going to set up a tax review committee.' Here I was thinking that they are so single-minded in their determination to jack up the GST and broaden the base of the GST. We know how determined they are to do that, because it is in their DNA. They were the ones that came into this place years ago and put the GST in place. In fact, they did not go nearly as far as they wanted to go. They had to compromise at the time, and in compromising they did not put the GST on fresh food or health and education services. And you know what? They did not even get the rate that they were really looking for, so they had to settle for 10 per cent. Now they see the great opportunity to come back, have a second crack at it and finish off the job—to broaden the base of the GST and slug Australian families by hitting people with higher costs and higher taxes on their health, their education services, their school fees, their private health insurance, their medicines and their medical aids. These are the things that they want to slug Australian families with. They come into this place day after day and say, 'We are going to save this country money by reducing red tape on small business.' Well, I will give you a tip: never before was there a government that strangled small businesses across this country quite like the Howard government when they introduced the GST. They strangled small businesses. Ms O'Dwyer: Mr Deputy Speaker, I raise a point of order on relevance. I would ask the minister to actually speak on the matter that is before this House. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr S Georganas ): The Assistant Treasurer has the call. Mr BRADBURY: Thanks, Mr Deputy Speaker. I know it hurts. It hurts her in particular, because she contributed to the office of the former Treasurer, the man who writes in the Telegraph to tell us how wonderful he was but never, ever received a gong. I will tell you what he did not receive. Forget about the gongs. We are not here for the gongs—even though I might add that there were two Labor Treasurers that were named the world's best finance minister but that is not a gong that her former boss got. But I will tell you what really matters to the Australian people: it was the fact that we have delivered a AAA credit rating from all of the three major global ratings agencies, something they never, ever achieved. Ms O'Dwyer interjecting— Mr BRADBURY: All of the heckling from the former staff member of the former member for Higgins will never change the record or overcome the fact that they never, ever achieved that. They come into this place and say, 'Oh, the economy is terrible.' The member for North Sydney says, 'The Treasurer's messages are confused.' I tell you what: his message has not been confused; he has been out there day after day for the last six years talking down the economy at every opportunity, trying to scare people. If there is any impact on confidence, it has to be, clearly, the fact that there are too many people out there that might actually be listening to the member for North Sydney. I remind the House that, if you want to understand— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Assistant Treasurer will resume his seat. I point out to the member for Higgins that an MPI is a discussion and members may talk on the topic. It is very difficult to get a— Ms O'Dwyer: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: that the government ought to be— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The member for Higgins will resume her seat and will not make frivolous point of orders as I have just explained the standing orders. The Assistant Treasurer. Mr BRADBURY: I have three letters for you: AAA. That is what we have got, a AAA credit rating from the three major ratings agencies—that is our record. That is what we delivered; that is what you never could deliver in office. On top of that I hear the Leader of the Opposition out there saying, 'We're going to create jobs. In the first five years we will create a million jobs.' That is what we have already done. We delivered it—just under a million jobs in the time we have been in office, no thanks to the Leader of the Opposition. We all remember—he might not remember—when the global financial crisis struck. Talk about stepping up to the plate, as the member for North Sydney says—that is what we did. We came into this place and we voted for the stimulus package. The Leader of the Opposition—I know people say he is asleep at the wheel; he was asleep on the lounge in his office after having a few drinks up at the parliamentary dining room. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Assistant Treasurer will withdraw. Mr BRADBURY: I withdraw; I was merely reflecting upon statements in The Daily Telegraph. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister will withdraw unequivocally. Mr BRADBURY: I withdraw, but what I do not withdraw is the fact that Leader of the Opposition slept through our response to the global financial crisis. This is the bloke whose former employer said was an economic illiterate. He is asking the Australian people to trust him with their finances. Let us have a look at what some other third parties might have said about the strength of the Australian economy. Who was it that said: When the current prime minister and the treasurer and others tell you that the Australian economy is doing better than most—they are right. From which oracle did these words of wisdom, these pearls of wisdom, emanate? None other than the former member for Bennelong, the former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard. Silence—absolute silence. He still carries some authority and some weight—and I know the member for Higgins in her former job no doubt spent half of her time trying to white-ant him in pursuit of her former employer's aspirations. Notwithstanding that, whenever they are in need of injecting a little credibility into their argument, they have got a few strategies. I spoke in question time the other day about the little pamphlet that the Leader of the Opposition wheels out. He stands in front of the camera and positions this little pamphlet under his chin. It is like a bib—and he needs a bib because of the rubbish that spews out on occasions. There he is with his little pamphlet under his chin. That is one of his attempts to generate a little credibility. When they are really pushed and really desperate, what they say is: 'We hark back to the great record of the Howard government.' We do not want to go too far back, because then you might have to acknowledge the Howard deficit that was left behind in 1983, the Howard deficit that was left behind for Labor to come in and clean up. If you assume that these people in 1983— Mr Tony Smith: What? Mr BRADBURY: Go and read some history books—you are not that young, member for Casey—about how the then member for Bennelong, who was the Treasurer, left this country in serious deficit. It was up to a Labor government to restore the finances. Go and read the history books. Honourable members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! There is too much chatter across the chambers. I ask members to cease interjecting. Mr BRADBURY: I can understand why they are so sensitive, because the man who they hold up— Mr Tony Smith interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Casey, I just asked you to refrain from interjecting. Mr BRADBURY: They hide behind the myth of the Howard government. They wheel out John Howard at every opportunity to give them some credibility on economic policy, because the Leader of the Opposition, whose former employer said he was an economic illiterate, is bored by economics. That is what the member for Higgins' former employer said. So what they do is they wheel out John Howard, but John Howard was out there and he was speaking the truth. He was talking about the strength of the Australian economy. He also said: We are still fortunate that we have an unemployment rate with a five in front of it. When the member for North Sydney is out there talking the Australian economy down, he should remember that we have an unemployment rate with a five in front of it. He goes on and he says: I wouldn’t have thought that was going to be possible a couple of years ago— this is from John Howard. I wouldn't have thought that was possible— I tell you what: under a Labor government, it has been delivered. He goes on: … and I do not think many people would have. He went on to say: And our debt to GDP ratio, the amount of money we owe to the strength of our economy, is still a lot better than most other countries. There you have it. Every time those characters come into this place and jump up and start talking about debt and deficit, the words of John Howard should be ringing in their ears. For all of the fraudulence that they come forward with, there is an utterance of truth that comes from the Liberal Party spoken by their elder statesman John Howard. They are the facts: an economy that is 14 per cent larger than it was before the GFC, unmatched by any advanced economy, and an unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent. We have delivered 960,000 jobs in our economy. We have a record pipeline of investment coming into this country, and it continues to be the case. We have contained inflation. Families are paying less on their interest rates than they paid before. Those opposite went to an election—we all remember it well; the member for Casey has a pretty poor memory but he might want to go back and have a look—and they said: 'Interest rates will always be lower under the Liberal Party.' Now, all of a sudden, low interest rates are something to lament. The families that I represent, the families that the people on this side of the chamber represent and small businesses like low interest rates. For someone with a mortgage of $300,000, they are paying $5,500 less in repayments every year. That is in their pocket. It is true, as the member for North Sydney said, people are saving more. That of itself is not such a bad thing. That is about having a little bit more sustainability in the way we conduct ourselves. Go and have a look at the Parliamentary Budget Office's review and the Treasury's review of the structural position of the budget and you will see that they point to the fact that some of the excesses built into the system back in the days of the Howard and Costello governments—no doubt some of the poor policy decisions that the member for Higgins advised her boss about—were put in place and have ensured the structural position of the budget was not as sound as it could have been. We have been making some massive moves to improve that, and that has been recognised by the PBO and by the Treasury. They go quiet when you talk about the PBO because— Ms O'Neill: They don't know where it is. Mr BRADBURY: They don't like to talk about costings. Ms O'Dwyer: That was our policy. Mr BRADBURY: You came into this place and voted against it. How often is it that you come into this place and vote against your own policy? And they talk about the taxes. I started this speech with reference to what the member for North Sydney said about their new taxes. Let us just talk about their new taxes. We already know that low-income earners are going to get a tax hike on their superannuation from these people. They talk about raiding superannuation, as long as it is the superannuation of some of the poorest people in this country. 'We don't want to touch those who are on the superlarge incomes. We don't want to touch them. They vote for us. We won't touch them.' But they are never, ever afraid to take a meat axe to those people on low and middle incomes; jacking up taxes on their superannuation. Then there is paid parental leave tax. Even the member for Mitchell—once again just a moment of clarity and truth coming from these people—said, 'unfair, unaffordable'. They say there is a budget emergency. Rubbish! But, if there were a budget emergency, this would be precisely the worst possible time. It is a flawed policy, but this would be the worst time to introduce a $20 billion new tax on business. Then there is the GST. They cannot go away from it. They just keep coming back to it. The state Liberal premiers are out there saying: 'We want more. We want more. We want more.' Well, we know you never stand between a state premier and a bucket of money. But the bucket of money is actually the money in the pockets of Australians all around this country. They want to jack up the GST; they want to broaden the base of the GST. The Leader of the Opposition has been given plenty of opportunity to say, 'I will rule it out,' and he will not rule it out. The reason he will not rule it out is that is exactly what he intends to do. They want to jack up the GST. They want to slug health. They want to slug education. They are going to slug business with their paid parental leave tax. They are going to jack up taxes. And that is just the start of it; I have not even got to talk about the secret commission of cuts, where they want to hack away at government services and the support that families are getting.