Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I was not here all the time. What do the students think about this? I can tell you, Member for Moreton, that the overwhelming majority of students do not want to pay this fee, this compulsory tax. As evidence of that, I have three independent former students with me in the parliament this morning, Dillon, Christina and Amelia, who are young Australian scientists and part of Science Meets Parliament, which we all know about. When I talked to them, they were certainly unhappy at having to pay a compulsory fee.

What is happening with this fee is worse than that. Why doesn’t it surprise me that it just means more debt for students? The Labor Party went to the last election saying: ‘We are economic conservatives. We are more conservative than the Howard government.’ Within a year and a bit, the Labor Party has already spent the surplus of the Howard government and gone into massive debt for our kids to pay off, for these young people in the parliament today to pay in future years. We will all benefit; our kids will pay the debt. To think that we are now heading towards $200,000 million worth of debt in the country is extraordinary.

Think about the Queensland Labor government and what they have done to our state, my state. Think about what they have done.

See this speech in context