Nelson targets petrol, health insurance in reply
15 05 08 - 10:49
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has promised to overturn the Government's tax increase on pre-mixed alcohol and to scrap the changes to private health insurance, in his Budget reply speech tonight.
In his reply Dr Nelson said he wants to see petrol excise cut by five cents a litre, which he said would have a modest downward impact on inflation.
"Watching petrol prices does not bring them down," he said.
"Petrol is now hurting Australians in every walk of life. This is a modest but meaningful way of helping all people."
Dr Nelson said the Government has perpetrated a fraud on the Australian people and he attacked its plan to raise the income threshold for the Medicare surcharge levy.
"We stand up for private health insurance," he said.
"We have always stood up for people with private health insurance, and we will continue to do so.
"We will oppose this measure.
"The Treasurer has not - as he says - taken the axe to irresponsible spending. He's merely taken an axe to people Labor doesn't like."
He said the Coalition will block the tax rise on so-called alcopops.
Dr Nelson also rejected the Government's claim that the increased tax on alcopops will reduce binge drinking.
He said the Government's own figures show that alcopop consumption will keep growing at about 10 per cent a year despite the tax rise.
"This is nothing more than a tax binge falsely presented to Australians as something that it is not and that is why we are angry about it," he said.
Dr Nelson denounced what he called an "old Labor, old-fashioned, high-taxing, high-spending budget".
"The Government promised to ease the pressure on working families, but failed the very people it vowed to protect," he said.
"Every Australian should now ask themselves this question - will this Budget make it easier to keep my house, fill the car with petrol, put groceries in the trolley and keep my job?
"Under Labor, we are headed again on the road from work to welfare.
"This Budget, like this Government, puts media spin above substance. There is no substitute for sound economic management, and Australians know it.
"Far from slowing inflation, this Budget risks breathing more life into it."