Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I listened very carefully to the intervention by the Leader of the Opposition. It goes to the fiscal capacity of government to deliver health services. If you are going to rip $1.6 billion out of the budget by returning that amount of money to the alcohol industry, where are your priorities, Leader of the Opposition? I would say to the Leader of the Opposition that the Liberal Party have demonstrated themselves to be so out of touch on the question of the measures they have taken in the Senate to provide these alcopops to young Australians, young girls in particular, by the irresponsible actions they have taken. Each and every one of them should just hang their head in shame. This is the ultimate triumph of their ideology. It says, at the end of the day: just oppose anything which might add up to a tax impost, even if it is on the alcohol industry, even if it deals with protecting our young people, even if it deals with the burden felt by our emergency services departments across Australia.

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