WONG: Tony Abbott confirmed tonight the people he would hit the people Liberals always hit working Australians.
He gave you a sneak peek tonight, but he'll keep the rest of his cuts secret from Australians until after the election.
But let's have a look at what he did say:
He made it clear he will take an axe to the superannuation savings of 8.4 million Australians.
He confirmed he would slash schools funding leaving Australias school kids $16.2 billion worse off.
Lets understand what Tony Abbott is saying: that it's fine for the poorest kids in this country to be left behind.
He said he'd take hundreds of dollars of support away for more than a million Australians.
And he confirmed his plans to hike up the taxes of everyone earning under $37,000 a year, mainly women, by $500.
He also confirmed again that an average Australian family with a couple of kids would be $15,000 worse off over the life of their children's education.
Mr Abbott made clear he would hit who Liberal governments always hit Australians on low and middle-incomes.
Tony Abbott pretended to be upfront tonight with the cuts he'd make, but he got a couple of things wrong.
He claimed he'd make savings from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, but this is an investment, not a spend. There is no budget benefit from abolishing the CEFC.
And again he pretended he'd save money under the NBN, and we know that is simply not true.
But what we did get tonight, what Australians did get, is a sneak peek.
A sneak peek of the savage cuts that Tony Abbott would impose upon this country were he ever to become Prime Minister.
Because what he has absolutely promised is a Commission of Audit a secret inquiry which would mean savage cuts like the ones Queenslanders are already seeing.
The sorts of cuts you always see from Liberal governments.
There's only one reason to have a once-in-a generation Commission of Audit. It's to justify the savage cuts you want to make in government.
You don't have a Commission of Audit to find the truth. You have a Commission of Audit to hide the truth.
So, while the Labor Party is going for a once-in-a generation investment in schools, what we would see from an Abbott government is once-in-a generation cuts to services.
Because that is in the Liberal Party DNA. They always cut too hard and they always cut in the wrong places.
Liberals cut to the bone.
And Tony Abbott made it clear tonight that's what he would do if he were elected.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: How did you figure out that Australian families would be $15,000 worse off?
WONG: This is the SchoolKids Bonus; two children over the life of the children's education.
JOURNALIST: Just with the CEFC, I realise it's an investment, but isn't the money borrowed to give them the $2 billion a year over five years whats the interest on that? Wouldn't they save the interest on that?
WONG: If he's talking about the provision that he thinks we've made for grants, we made it very clear in the investment mandate that they would lend on a commercial basis so there's not a budget impact.
JOURNALIST: There'd have to be a budget impact on borrowing ....
WONG: This is an investment. There's not a provision for grants which is where he gets the number in the document he put out.
JOURNALIST: Tony Abbott said he'd be supportive of some of Labor's cuts outlined earlier this week. Is that encouraging?
WONG: It does seem kind of ironic, doesn't it, that this is such a bad Budget that he's now going to back it in.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about the tax reform white paper hes promising?
WONG: I suspect it's probably, if implemented, another excuse to attack working people and increase the burden of tax on them. I noticed tonight again Nick Minchin is calling for increases to the GST, just as the BCA is, and you know how close Nick Minchin is to Mr Abbott.
JOURNALIST: Employers pay the super contribution so does his delay in the increase from 9 to 12 per cent... does the delay give those businesses a bit of a break?
WONG: Let's be clear what's driving this attack on superannuation. Let's remember what Tony Abbott said when superannuation was first being built by a Labor Government, and I quote: Compulsory superannuation is one of the biggest con jobs ever foisted by government on the Australian people.
It's pretty clear what Tony Abbott thinks of working people getting superannuation.
JOURNALIST: But he is promising to get to 12 per cent but to do it two years later. So what do you say the impact of that delay would be?
WONG: I haven't got the costings in front of me about what that would mean, but we all know what its all about. It's lower superannuation for working people from a man who thinks superannuation for workers is a con job.
JOURNALIST: Do you think he'll just find another reason to delay it further?
WONG: I think Mr Abbott, like the Liberal Party in general, does not put the interests of working Australians first.
JOURNALIST: Labor's been ramping up the pressure, today and in recent weeks, for Mr Abbott to actually reveal the sorts of cuts he'd make, whether he'd adopt yours or announce his own. He's actually gone a fair way towards doing that tonight. Are you satisfied with what you heard?
WONG: I'm pleased on one thing; that he's recognised the rigour in the Government's Budget after railing against it.
But I'd again say this: Mr Abbott says there's a budget emergency. That only leads you to one place and that is more cuts. All he's done tonight is given you a sneak peek of the sorts of cuts he'd make.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the election ahead, what did you make of the speech tonight? Where does it leave the Government?
WONG: I think on the values front it's very clear that in the Budget and Budget Reply is a very different set of values on display between the Labor Government and Tony Abbott. Really, you can see that most in terms of the schools reform.
Why does Labor want to reform our schools? It's because we have the poorest kids, the most disadvantaged children in Australia, being left behind under our current system and that's the system that needs reform. There's a lot of agreement about that in the community and within the education sector.
But what Tony Abbott said tonight is: That's OK, we don't mind if children are left behind. We don't mind if your postcode continues to be such a strong determinant of your outcomes.
JOURNALIST: Did you read his comments tonight about schools as a signal to other Liberal premiers not to sign up to the Government's plan?
WONG: I read his comment about schools as a signal he doesn't care about expanding the opportunity of children when it comes to education.
JOURNALIST: What about comments this evening basically wanting more autonomy for the States where possible?
WONG: Who knows what that means when it comes to the rhetoric of the speech. I'd have to say if you were a Queenslander you'd probably be a bit worried about that, wouldn't you? A bit more power to Mr Newman to impose more cuts in more areas of services.
JOURNALIST: By outlining some cuts tonight, doesn't that blunt the Government's attack on the Opposition that he hasn't been straight with the Australian people?
WONG: Not at all. In fact, if anything, I think what it's done is made very clear the values that drive Mr Abbott when it comes to his cuts. It's given Australians a very clear message about the sort of approach he would take. As I said, a sneak peek of the savage cuts to come were he ever to become Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: Whether you like it or not, he's been straight, hasn't he?
WONG: It demonstrates what we already knew that he would go much further. Because I think there are two things tonight that we know. We know what his values are to go after working Australians. But we also know there's more to come.
You don't have a Commission of Audit to find the truth. You have a Commission of Audit to hide the truth.
JOURNALIST: By signing up to some of the savings Labor's promised, by agreeing to keep the compensation associated with the carbon tax, and signing up to the NDIS levy the 0.5 per cent rise he has blunted some of the political attack the Labor Partys been targeting him with...
WONG: If you think adopting some of the Labor Government's policies and the Labor Governments Budget is anything other than a concession that these are things we've got right, well, that's up to you.
The point I'm making is he's done that, but he's also made clear that he'd go further. And so what we'd say... we've got Andrew Robb saying we've got our policies costed, well, why don't you release them and why don't you release the Parliamentary Budget Office costings?
What we got tonight is the sneak peek. But we've got a Commission of Audit and we all know what that means more to come. And we got again, we're not going to release them until well into the election campaign, which is simply saying to the Australian people, I'm not going to let you in on what my real plans are. Im not going to tell you.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the announcement on superannuation, are you drawing anything between that and the discomfort some in business had with the paid parental leave scheme from the Opposition?
WONG: What I'm drawing a link on is this: Tony Abbott, like the Liberal Party more generally, has never supported superannuation being extended to working Australians and they have demonstrated that again tonight. Thanks very much.
ENDS