Mr SWAN (Lilley—Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) (14:26): I think there is a very clear explanation for this, because this is just another cash grab by the Liberal Party in Brisbane. That is what it is, and I think the Brisbane City Council are going to have a lot of trouble demonstrating the claims that they are making. For example, $11 million is claimed to cover a rise in inflation of 0.7 per cent, but that is based on the average price increase for households, and councils will be subjected to smaller price increases—and the list goes on. The fact is that those opposite are going to come into this House every day and exaggerate the impact of the carbon price because they do not have any policies in particular; they just have this reckless negativity of the Leader of the Opposition. But, of course, as we get closer to 1 July he starts to run away from his previous positions. First of all the price rises were going to be absolutely through the roof. Then Whyalla was going to be destroyed. Then whole industries were going to go down the gurgler. They are clearly not, because what we have here is not a Leader of the Opposition; we have a snake oil salesman who is slithering around the country peddling his falsehoods because he does not have any policies and he is trying to cover up the fact that he wants to rip out the tax cuts that are coming in on 1 July and to get rid of the tripling of the tax-free threshold. He has also said— Mrs Prentice: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. While snake oil salesmen are relevant to the Acting Prime Minister, they are not relevant to— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): The member for Ryan will resume her seat. If she had stopped at 'directly relevant', she would have been appropriate. The Acting Prime Minister has the call and will return to the question before the chair. Mr SWAN: The fact is that what we have here is a political strategy They do not care what damage they cause to confidence or to the views of Australians about the importance of dealing with dangerous climate change. They will say anything and do anything to justify their political position, which is rapidly declining, because as we get to 1 July he is going to be running away from all of the extreme claims that he has made. He will be simply a hollow man in a cul-de-sac without any policies at all, because then he is going to have to explain to the Australian people what he is going to do about a tripling of the tax-free threshold and what he is going to do about the increase in the family payments. He has already indicated today that he is going to knock off the schoolkids bonus. We had that also— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Acting Prime Minister will resume his seat. The member for Mackellar on a point of order other than relevance. Mrs Bronwyn Bishop: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I wanted to point out that to maintain the link is for direct relevance and there is no maintenance through his answer. I would refer you to page 553 of the Practice. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I thank the member for Mackellar. The Acting Prime Minister has the call and will return to the question. Mr SWAN: On this side of the House we have put in place a long-term economic reform which will enable our economy to prosper in the 21st century, which will drive investment in energy efficiency and in renewable energy. Prosperous economies in the 21st century will be those that are energy efficient and are more driven by renewable energy. That is our motivation for our long-term prosperity. The motivation of those opposite is simply politics, not national interest but political self-interest.