John Howard’s explosive Bill Shorten spray
‘You cannot suspend the laws of gravity’, Mr Howard said. ‘If a company doesn’t make money it can’t afford to pay higher wages except by sacking people’.
He said Labor’s policies on franking credits and negative gearing would hurt hardworking Australians in a way he had never experienced before, adding: “Bill Shorten will divide this country on class lines the like of which we haven’t seen in my lifetime.
‘He is far more divisive than Bob Hawke ever was’.
Howard said Shorten, would lead a government that would be beholden to the unions.
‘Bob Hawke may have risen to greater heights in the union movement than Bill Shorten but Bob Hawke was far less beholden to the unions than Mr Shorten is’.
‘There is no doubt the unions will be back in charge under Mr Shorten’.
Mr Howard said Labor’s plans to end cash refunds for excess dividend imputation credits for those not paying income tax, and proposed changes to limit negative gearing to only new properties, sent a message to Australians not to work hard.
‘(Mr Shorten) is creating a climate of envy among those people who don’t own an investment property or haven’t brought shares’.
‘It is a desperate ploy to invoke the language of class warfare … we want to encourage hard work and enterprise’.
‘I was in Parliament when Bob Hawke came into Parliament’.
‘I knew him the whole time he was prime minister and he would have never used language like this’.
Source: The West Australian